
Class 



Book 




FIRST CHURCH OF HARTFORD. 
Erected 1807. 



COMMEMORATIVE EXERCISES 

OF THE 

V I SC? t p Y <A } Co Yi T\ ,, 

First Church of Christ 



HARTFORD, 



AT ITS 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY, 



'OCTOBER 11 AND 12, 1883. 



HARTFORD, CONN. : 

Press of The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company. 

1883. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Preliminary Proceedings, ' 5 

Order of Exercises, 10 

Address of Welcome, by William R. Cone, . . 15 
Remarks on the Early Topography of Hartford, 

by John C. Parsons, 24 

Presentation of the Portrait of Rev. Joel Hawes, 

by Edward J. Van Lennep, .... 32 

Historical Address, by Rev. George Leon Walker, . 37 

Address of Rev. Wolcott Calkins, .... 103 
Address of Rev. George H. Gould, . . . .111 

Address of Rev. N. J. Burton, 118 

Address of Rev. Noah Porter, 123 

Address of Rev. Edward Everett Hale, . . . 125 
Address of Edward B. Hooker, . . . . .131 
Women Founders of New England, by John Hooker, 132 
The Meeting-Houses of the First Church, by Row- 
land Swift, 135 

Reminiscences, by Rev. Aaron L. Chapin, . . .164 
The Relation of the Church to the Civil Govern- 
ment, by Pinckney W. Ellsworth, . . 173 
Social and Domestic Life in Early Times, by Mrs. 

Lucius Curtis, 193 

Correspondence, 207 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Present Church, 

Interior of Present Church, 

Card of Invitation, 

The Charter Oak, 

Copy of Porter's Map of Hartford in 1640, 
Portrait of Rev. George L. Walker, . 
View of the Old Burying Ground, 
Portrait of Rev. Nathan Strong, 
Portrait of Rev. Joel Hawes, 
Portrait of Rev. Elias H. Richardson, 
Portrait of Rev. Wolcott Calkins, 
Portrait of Rev. George H. Gould, . 



Frontispiece. 
7 
9 

*9 

24 

37 
55 
83 
90 

97 
103 

in 




PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 



At the annual meeting of the First Ecclesiastical Society 
of Hartford, January 12, 1883, the following communication 
was received from the Pastor : 

Hartford, January 11, 1883. 

Brothers and Friends : I desire to bring to your notice at this 
time the propriety of the due and proper commemoration of the Two 
Hundred and Fiftieth anniversary of the Church with which this Eccle- 
siastical Society is connected. The First Church of Christ in Hartford 
was gathered at Newtown (now Cambridge), Mass., on or before Octo- 
ber, 1633. 

On the nth of that month, the earliest date distinctly ascertainable 
in its history and generally taken to be the birthday of the organization, 
its first Pastor and Teacher were inducted into their respective offices. 
Ten months more will complete two and a half centuries in its history. 
Such an event deserves commemoration. . . . It is customary in 
our New England Churches to provide for their century anniversaries 
by a joint action of church and society. Your annual meeting preceding 
that of the Church, causes me earliest to address you on a matter which, 
in strict order of propriety, might first perhaps have been brought before 
the Church. But I am pleasurably aware that the constituency of 
Church and Society are, with us, to a great degree identical, and I do 
not suppose there can be the least diversity of opinion between the two 
bodies as to the propriety of the action recommended. 

Should this matter commend itself to you as deserving of regard, I 
suggest, as a practical method of dealing with it, the appointment of a 
committee of six judiciously selected members of your body to cooper- 
ate with the Pastor and with a committee to be appointed by the 
Church, and empowered to take all needful measures and incur all 
needful expenses in planning and carrying out the suitable memorial 
observance of the quarter-millennial anniversary of the organization of 
the First Church of Christ in Hartford. 

I am, Brethren and Friends, 

Your Minister in the Gospel, 

Geo. Leon Walker. 

After consideration of the foregoing communication the 
Society 



" Voted, That Calvin Day, William W. House, John C. Parsons, 
Charles A. Jewell, Robert E. Day, and Charles T. Welles be and they 
hereby are appointed a committee to make any suitable arrangement for 
the celebration and record of this Anniversary." 

At the annual meeting of the First Church of Christ in 
Hartford, Feb. 6, 1883, a communication from the Pastor 
similar in tenor to that addressed to the Society was read, 
recommending the appointment of a committee of brethren 
and sisters of the Church, to cooperate with the committee 
of the Society in the due and proper celebration of the 
anniversary of the organization of the Church. Whereupon 
the Church 

" Voted to proceed to the selection of the Committee as advised." 

The persons designated to act as the Committee in the 
Church's behalf were these : 

William R. Cone, William Thompson, 

Bryan E. Hooker, Rowland Swift, 

Francis B. Cooley, Solon P. Davis, 

Samuel M. Hotchkiss, Henry E. Taintor, 

Henry P. Stearns, Daniel R. Howe. 
Henry Roberts, 

At a subsequent period of time the joint Committees 
appointed by the Church and the Society organized by the 
choice of William R. Cone, Chairman, and Charles T. Welles, 
Secretary, and designated the following sub-committees for 
the distribution and accomplishment of the work : 

Speakers and order of Exercises : Invitation, Correspondence, and 

William R. Cone, Printing: 

Calvin Day, William Thompson, 

Henry P. Stearns, Charles T. Welles, 

Francis B. Cooley, Robert E. Day, 

Rowland Swift. Daniel R. Howe. 

Finance : Entertainment : 

William W. House, John C. Parsons, 

John C. Parsons, Bryan E. Hooker, 

Charles A. Jewell. William W. House, 

Decorations : Charles A. Jewell, 

Solon P. Davis, Henry E. Taintor. 
Samuel M. Hotchkiss, 
Henry Roberts. 




INTERIOR OF FIRST CHURCH. 
October 11, 1883. 



The ladies appointed by the Church to act as members of 
the Anniversary Committee were as follows : 

Mrs. Henry E. Taintor, Mrs. John Allen, 

Mrs. Pinckney W. Ellsworth, Mrs. Burr R. Abbe, 

Mrs. Charles A. Jewell, Mrs. William A. Thompson, 

Mrs. Edmund G. Howe, Mrs. Albert H. Pitkin, 

Mrs. Francis B. Cooley, Mrs. John M. Holcombe, 

Mrs. Rowland Swift, Miss Caroline D. Bissell. 

They met and appointed the following sub-committees: 
Entertainment : Decoration : 

Mrs. Edmund G. Howe, Mrs. Francis B. Cooley, 

Mrs. Henry E. Taintor, Mrs. Burr R. Abbe, 

Mrs. John Allen, Mrs. Pinckney W. Ellsworth, 

Mrs. William A. Thompson, Mrs. Rowland Swift, 

Mrs. John M. Holcombe, Mrs. Albert H. Pitkin, 

Miss Caroline D. Bissell. Mrs. Charles A. Jewell. 

These committees had numerous meetings previous to 
the Celebration, which occurred on Thursday and Friday, 
October nth and 12th, 1883, and diligently attended to the 
duties appointed to them. Cards of invitation, a specimen 
of which will be found in this volume, were sent to the 
settled clergy throughout the State, to all non-resident 
and past members of the Church whose address could be 
ascertained, and to a few other individuals in this country 
and in England. 

The Committee on Decoration of the Church was spared 
any endeavor toward its ornamentation by the fact of its 
new and very handsome painting and frescoing under the 
direction of the Society's Committee. They were enabled, 
however, to secure for the walls of the lecture-room a 
number of interesting portraits and other pictures, among 
which may be mentioned portraits of Rev. Drs. Strong, 
Hawes, Gould, and Richardson ; of Rev. Timothy Pitkin, 
Gov. Ellsworth, Chief Justice Williams, James Hosmer, and 
William Hungerford; as well as paintings of the Charter 
Oak, by C. D. W. Brownell, and of Hooker's party traversing 
the wilderness, by F. E. Church. There were also photo- 
graphs of the Tilton parish Church in Leicestershire, in 



which it is believed Thomas Hooker was baptized, and of 
the churches at Chelmsford and Little Baddow, associated 
with later aspects of his life in England. A beautiful water- 
color drawing of St. Mary's Church in Chelmsford was also 
loaned for the occasion by Rev. Francis Goodwin. The 
Bible used by Thomas Hooker, and which has come down 
in the line of one of his descendants, was read from in the 
opening services of Thursday morning, and was on exhibition 
in the lecture-room on Friday. In the Church audience- 
room two tablets, one on either side of the pulpit-window, 
had inscribed upon them the names of the Pastors of the 
Church and the duration of their official services. Tablets 
wrought in immortelles with the dates 1633 and 1883, respect- 
ively, were placed on the columns on either side the pulpit- 
recess, while one bearing the inscription "250" was placed 
immediately in front of the pulpit. A large map of Hartford 
in 1640, drawn by Solon P. Davis and suspended back of the 
speaker's desk, gave definiteness to the references of the 
early topography of the town. Beautiful plants were taste- 
fully arranged on the sides of the platform and on the stairs 
leading to it. 

A very interesting feature of the occasion was the use, for 
the first time, of the grand and melodious organ presented to 
the Church as a memorial offering by Mrs. Leonard Church. 

The beautiful memorial window, given by Julius Catlin, was 
also seen for the first time by most of those who attended 
the services of the celebration. 

The grave of Thomas Hooker, in the old burying ground 
behind the Church, was adorned with flowers presented by 
several of his lineal posterity. 

The collation on Friday, between the services of morning 
and afternoon, proved a very successful occasion for the 
meeting of long-separated friends and the renewal of old 
associations. 

Nothing occurred throughout the exercises of the two days 
to mar the felicity of the proceedings. These proceedings 
were fully reported in the Courant of October 12th and 13th, 



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but the General Committee on the celebration, at a meeting 
held the 15 th of October, deeming the event deserving of 
permanent record, authorized and directed a sub-committee, 
consisting of the following named persons, to prepare and 
publish a memorial of the transactions of the anniversary 
suited to a place in the library of those Concerned or inter- 
ested in it : 

William Thompson, Daniel R. Howe, 

Charles T. Welles, George Leon Walker. 

Robert E. Day, 

It is in fulfillment of this direction that the following pages 
have been compiled. 



ORDER OF EXERCISES. 



Thursday Morning. 
I. Organ Prelude. Handel. 

II. DOXOLOGY. 

III. Reading of Scripture. Psalm lxxxix : 1-18. 

IV. Prayer. 

V. Anthem. One Hundredth Psalm. Tours. 

VI. Address of Welcome. William R. Cone. 
VII. Psalm cxxxvi. Tate and Brady. 

Tune, Lenox. 
To God the mighty Lord, 

Your joyful Thanks repeat : 
To Him due Praise afford, 
As good as He is great. 
For God does prove 
Our constant Friend, 
His boundless Love 
Shall never end. 

2. Thro' Desarts vast and wild 

He led the chosen Seed ; 
And famous Princes foil'd, 

And made great Monarchs bleed. 
For God, etc. 

3. Sihon, whose potent Hand 

Great Ammon's Sceptre sway'd ; 
And Og, whose stern Command 
Rich Bashan's Land obey'd. 
For God, etc. 

4. And of His wond'rous Grace 

Their Lands, whom He destroy'd, 
He gave to Isr'els Race, 
To be by them enjoy'd. 
For God, etc. 



II 

5. He does the Food supply, 

On which all Creatures live : 
To God who reigns on high 
Eternal Praises give. 
For God will prove 
Our constant Friend, 
His boundless love 
Shall never end. 

VIII. Early Topography of Hartford. John C. Parsons. 

[Illustrated by a copy of Porter's Map of Hartford in 1640, prepared 
by Solon P. Davis.] 

IX. Hymn 1060. "O God, beneath Thy guiding hand." 
Tune, Bond. 

Thursday Afternoon. 

I. Psalm lxxviii. Tate and Brady. 

Tune, Archdale. 
Hear, O my People, to my Law, 

devout Attention lend ; 
Let the Instruction of my Mouth 

deep in your Hearts descend. 
My Tongue, by Inspiration taught, 

shall Parables unfold, 
Dark Oracles, but understood, 

and owned for Truths of old ; 

2 Which we from sacred Registers 

of antient Times have known, 
And our Forefathers pious Care 

to us has handed down. 
We will not hide them from our Sons ; 

our Offspring shall be taught 
The Praises of the Lord, whose Strength 

has Works of Wonder wrought. 

3 That Generations yet to come 

should to their unknown Heirs 
Religiously transmit the same, 

and they again to theirs. 
To teach them that in God alone 

their hope securely stands, 
That they should ne'er His Works forget, 

but keep his just Commands. 

II. Historical Address. Rev. George Leon Walker, D.D. 

III. Hymn 820. "Let saints below in concert sing." 

Tune, St. Anns. 

IV. Closing Voluntary. Bach. 



12 

Thursday Evening. 

I. Organ Voluntary. Mendelssohn. 

II. Gloria in Excelsis. Pease. 

III. Addresses by former Pastors. 

IV. Music. " The Lord is mindful of His Own." 

Mendelssohn. 
V. Addresses by Invited Guests. 
VI. Hymn 1 014. " Christ is coming ! Let creation " — 

Verdussen. 

Friday Morning. 

I. Organ Prelude and Chorus. St. Saens. 

II. Prayer. 

III. The Meeting-houses of the First Church. Rowland 

Swift. 

IV. Reminiscences. Rev. Aaron L. Chapin, D.D. 

V. Hymn 757. " O where are kings and empires now." 

Friday Afternoon. 

I. Hymn 522. " Call Jehovah thy salvation." Raff- 

II. Relation of the Church to the Civil Government. 
Pinckney W. Ellsworth. 

III. Social and Domestic Life in Early Times. 

Mrs. Lucius Curtis. 

IV. Hymn 824. " Blest be the tie that binds." 

Tune, Dennis. 



T 



HURSDAY MORNING 



M 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 

BY WILLIAM R. CONE. 

Throughout the German empire there is to be celebrated on 
the i ith of the next month, November, the anniversary of the 
birth of Martin Luther, a poor miner's son, born in a Saxon 
village four hundred years ago. The event is deemed of such 
importance, that the Emperor William of Germany, has issued 
his proclamation designating the ioth and I ith days of Novem- 
ber as " Luther days," to be observed throughout his king- 
dom of Prussia. In this proclamation the emperor says : 
" I pray that God may listen to the supplications in which I 
and all evangelical Christians unite, that this celebration be 
.productive of lasting benefit to our Evangelical Church." 
This is a prayer which we may most appropriately adopt 
upon this occasion. 

On the 4th of September, 1633, an event occurred upon 
this side of the Atlantic, hardly less significant and import- 
ant, and which in its consequence to religion and civilization 
has few parallels in history. On that day there landed from 
a vessel, the Griffin, at the port of Boston, a few miles away 
from the little hamlet of Newtown, now Cambridge, Mass., 
a company of exiled Puritan pilgrims, seeking a home in 
this western world. Among them were two remarkable 
men, Thomas Hooker, who became the first pastor of this 
Church, and John Haynes, who became the first governor of 
this State. They met upon the shore a small band of relig- 
ious men and women, who had preceded them, and there, by 
the sea, awaited their coming. Hooker had, prior to their 
departure from England, ministered to a considerable portion 
of this handful of emigrants, and as he landed, they met him 
with open arms and glad hearts, and welcomed him, as I do 



i6 

you to-day, with most hearty greetings. And as he came 
within their welcome embrace, he assured them with equal 
earnestness of his Christian regard, affection, and interest, 
and said to his old flock, " Now I live if ye stand fast in the 
Lord." This meeting and Christian greeting carried with it 
such evidence of their trust and fidelity to their Lord, that 
on the nth day of the next month, October, they fully 
organized this first Church of Christ, and Mr. Hooker was 
installed as their Christian leader. This organization has 
never been interrupted. It is the same church which com- 
menced its work on the nth of October, 1633, and which in 
its Christian work since, and in its influence upon civilization 
and all that contributes to national wealth and prosperity, 
and the advancement and happiness of the human race, will 
continue to work on to the end of time. A quarter of a 
thousand years since the happening of this event, so appar- 
ently small and insignificant in itself, has passed; but it 
involved great trusts, the planting here of this Christian 
church, which contained the germs of our nation's greatness, 
and power ; and though the actors in this organization of 
the nth of October, 1633, have ceased their work, and many 
generations have swept over their memories and their graves, 
and most of them are forgotten, and even the names of many 
of them are no longer to be found in any part of this wide 
land ; yet their work will never stop. The faithful services 
they did here, in planting this Church and founding this State, 
will never die. The church is the same, though other hands 
have taken it up and will carry it on through all time. The 
results of these labors are spread over this whole continent, 
are felt throughout the civilized world, and this assembly is 
here by invitation to celebrate the 250th anniversary of this 
event, look upon the work, judge of the results, and trace 
the steps in the progress of its accomplishment. 

I have somewhere seen a picture, executed by a skillful 
master, which brought out in wonderful vividness the history 
and events of a life. It was the picture of a very old man, 
calling up to himself the record of his life. He stood, a very 



17 

patriarch, with flowing locks and the snow of many winters 
upon his head — looking off, and viewing, at a great distance 
in the landscape, the house in which he was born, the 
fields of his early sports, where he passed his youth and his 
school days. He held in his hand a portrait of himself, just 
as he was passing from boyhood, with a face radiant with 
hope, every lineament marked with self-reliance and high 
resolve. Spread out before him was a wide landscape extend- 
ing over land and water, the great field of his labor and his life. 
Upon a roll at his feet was inscribed the names of his chil- 
dren. Standing there, with the scenes of every stage of his 
life spread out before him, he was trying to discern, in the 
portrait of his boyhood, some resemblance of himself as 
reflected in a mirror. He seemed to be calling up to his 
memory the history of his life, its trials, its discouragements, 
disappointments, and vicissitudes, its successes, triumphs, and 
victories. The events and results of a whole lifetime were 
before him, as was the path he had traveled all the way from 
the little old home where he was born to the place where he 
was standing. The picture was wonderfully suggestive. 
Something like it we are here to witness to-day. 

This venerable church, represented by the descendants 
and successors of its early members, stands here looking 
down through the vista and mist of two hundred and fifty 
years, and sees in the dim distance the early and unpretend- 
ing home by the sea, in which it had its birth, and from 
which their way through a trackless wilderness led them, 
just as it was taking upon itself the strength and vigor of 
its early manhood, to this, then as now, fertile and beauti- 
ful valley of the Connecticut. And now, as the representa- 
tives and embodiment of this First Church of Christ, we 
are here, trying to discern what there is of resemblance to 
the portrait which you will have presented to you of its early 
existence — and if the picture, with its groupings and environ- 
ments, is well drawn and distinctly presented, as it will be, — 
for it is to be done by a skillful master, — the history and 
events of this church, its trials, vicissitudes, disappointments, 
3 



i8 

and its successes and triumphs as well, will be seen to have 
impressed themselves upon the world at large, the civil 
community here and everywhere, as no other like event has 
ever done. 

Early in June, 1636, the party, constituting this first Church 
of Christ, commenced their wearisome and perilous jour- 
ney from the sea, through the dark and trackless forest 
to this, their future home of toil, privation, and suffering. 
Who can adequately describe the discouragements of that 
journey ? About the 15th of June, after two weeks of march- 
ing through the tangled jungles of the forest, this party of 
about 100 men, women, and little children, led by Hooker, 
stood upon the banks of this river, and through the openings 
made by the repeated fires, which the Indians for centuries 
had annually started to preserve the clearings upon which 
they planted their corn, and cultivated their scanty crops — 
saw "Centinel" hill, and the rising ground which became 
" Meeting-house Yard" and the elevations west and south of 
the city and further from the river, upon which the capitol, 
the asylum, and the colleges now stand. Beyond these 
openings, there extended back from the river on every side, 
the dark, impenetrable forest, of giant oak, chestnut, and 
other forest trees, the growth of centuries, inhabited by wild 
and ferocious beasts, and peopled by wild and more savage 
Indians, whose wigwams were seen upon the outskirts of 
these openings, frightful in their war paint, clothed in skins, 
or a coarse and filthy blanket, decked with feathers, armed 
with tomahawk and scalping knife, and whose war whoop 
and treachery had become the terror of all the white inhabit- 
ants of the land. 

Why were not these men and women disheartened at 
the prospect of life before them ? The object and purpose 
that brought them here, made them courageous and stout- 
hearted. Hooker and his party had an errand in this 
wilderness, a work to accomplish. It was the planting 
here of " a Church without a Bishop ; and the founding a 
State without a King." The principles of religion and civil 



< I- 

2 



oo 




19 

liberty, which they brought with them, were safe in their 
keeping, and soon formulated in the first written constitu- 
tion which ever had existence (the constitution of 1639), 
the work of Hooker, Haynes, and Ludlow, and in which 
Governor George Wyllys had some part ; a constitution 
which recognized the people as the sovereigns, from whom 
alone emanated all power; and never has Connecticut recog- 
nized any man as its governor whose authority was derived 
from the king ; a constitution which in its essential features 
always has been, and still is the constitution of this State. 
There was, in this company of plodding pilgrims, another 
personage, William Gibbon*, whose name is forever linked in 
history with the preservation of that immemorial tree in which 
the chartered liberties, contained in that first constitution, 
were hidden and preserved ; when the king sought to wrest 
from the people their liberties, and bring them under his 
authority. He too, had an errand in this wilderness. He 
was the steward of George Wyllys, the third governor of 
Connecticut, sent forward to purchase and prepare a place fit 
for his reception. Charter Oak hill was selected as the place. 
And, as he, with his men, was making the clearing and felling 
the trees, there came, upon one of those warm, balmy days in 
early summer, a deputation of Indians, to remonstrate and pro- 
test against the cutting down of a venerable oak which stood 
upon this hill. They pleaded, in behalf of this immemorial 
tree, that the woodman would spare it. " It has been the 
guide of our ancestors for centuries," said they, " as to the 
time of planting • our corn ; when its leaves are the size of a 
mouse's ear, then it is time to put the seed in the ground." 
At their entreaty the tree was permitted to stand, and for 
two hundred and twenty years continued to indicate the 

* William Gibbon of Hartford upon Connecticut, Yeoman, died in 1655. By 
his last will he devised about thirty acres of meadow and upland in Fenywise, in 
the town of Wethersfield, "towards the mayntenance of a lattin schoole in 
Hartford." This was probably the first legacy for educational purposes in 
Connecticut. Under a town vote passed Jan. 8, 1756, this land was let out on 
a long lease for a gross rent, but the fee is still in the trustees of the Hartford 
Grammar school. — Vide note, p. 31, Vol. iv, of the printed Colonial Records. 



20 

time when the earth was prepared for the seed corn. 
And I well remember, and others in this assembly will 
remember the solemn tolling, tolling, of this church bell, on 
the 2 1st day of August, 1856, when it was announced that 
this vast legendary tree, the Charter Oak, so intimately 
connected with the planting of this Church and founding 
of this State, had fallen. This was indeed the planting 
season, the propitious time for the seed to germinate 
here. Thus this church was planted, this State was founded, 
Hartford was peopled, and this old oak saved, that the 
charter of its liberties might be preserved. 

"God sifted a whole nation," said Stoughton, "that he 
might send choice grain over into this wilderness." The 
choicest of the seed was planted here upon Hartford soil, 
it took deep root, and its fruits are ripening in every State 
upon this continent* Though sown and nurtured by these 
pioneers in sorrow and tears, nearly two hundred and fifty 
years ago, the ripening harvest is now being reaped in joy 
and triumph. 

* DeTocqueville, the French Historian, a great friend of America, was once 
invited by some of our countrymen in Paris to a 4th- of July dinner. Called 
upon for a speech towards the close, he promptly responded, and narrated 
how in the course of his tour through the United States, he at length reached 
Washington. Congress was in session, so of course, he hastened to the Capitol 
and found himself, presently, eagerly listening to the various speakers in the 
Senate Chamber and House. One after another arose and harangued the 
audience, riveting his attention in several instances by their irresistible eloquence, 
fertility of resource, forcible argument, or sterling common sense. "Who is that 
last speaker?" DeTocqueville would exclaim to one who sat beside him. 
"Oh! that is the member from Kentucky, but he belonged originally in Connec- 
ticut." Again, " Who is the able man now speaking ? " " That is the member 
from Missouri, but he was originally from Connecticut." "And that other one 
to whom all listened so breathlessly ? " " He is the member from Illinois, but 
Connecticut was also his native State," and so on, till the vivacious Frenchman 
became impatient to consult his map, saying to himself, "Dis Konnecticoot must 
be a very fine State ! " He went home and searched the map and found that 
"it was only von leetle yellow spot!" He went on to relate, how afterwards he 
went to see for himself that same spot, and, when he inspected its schools and 
colleges, saw its busy trade, successful industries, and the variety of its manufac- 
tures, he was led to exclaim, "as I now do to you, Gentlemen," finally, " dat leetle 
State you call Konnecticoot is von great miracle to me " ! ! ! 



21 

We, of this generation, enjoying the comforts and luxuries 
of our day, in the use and employment of the various inven- 
tions in labor-saving machinery, and all .the modern appli- 
ances of our civilization, cannot roll back the tide of time two 
hundred and fifty years, and picture the scenes and events 
connected with this toilsome journey, and the hardships and 
privations of their home life here. The contrast, with our 
times and experience, is too great for realization. If we try, 
we look in vain for any external features in the portrait of its 
early times and young life, with this old patriarchal church. 
More than two centuries have passed since the youngest of 
the company, who met Hooker on the 4th of September, 1633, 
and who accompanied him here, was carried to his grave on 
men's shoulders. No recognizable vestige of the place, 
where they lived and labored for us and for posterity, now 
exists, except these imperishable hills, the soil upon which 
they trod, and the scattered fragments, to be found, here and 
there, of that memorable oak, the last of its kind, saved from 
the axe of the woodman, in that early summer time, when 
this church was being planted and this State was being 
founded, and in which its charter was hidden and preserved. 
The savage population are extinct, — the howl of the wolf is 
no longer heard,— the forest of oak, elm, hemlock, and beach 
have disappeared in the progress of civilization — the paths 
they trod and the ways they traveled, as shown upon the map, 
are obliterated. The houses they built and occupied have 
gone to decay ; the graves of many of them are removed ; 
their house of worship has long since disappeared, and its 
precise site is not certainly known. There is no feature or 
lineament in the portrait of the young church remaining and 
recognizable now, except, ah, except the principles upon 
which it was founded, and which its early members exempli- 
fied in their daily life, and left as a precious legacy to all the 
future inhabitants of this land. These, time has neither 
faded or weakened ; they live and flourish, and will live for- 
ever, and from them this church has never swerved, and the 
originators and founders should be honored, and held in per- 



22 

petual, grateful, and everlasting remembrance. We are here, 
my friends, to give expression to our veneration. 

What changes between that day and this ! Should these 
men who constituted this first church of Christ in Hart- 
ford, Hooker, Stone, Haynes, Wyllys, and the others, 
now enter the doors of this church, advance along these 
aisles, and give to you this address of welcome, what 
would be their surprise and amazement as they looked upon 
this beautiful, prosperous, and busy city ; and then off upon 
this great, opulent, and powerful country, — as they listened to 
the peals of this organ ; heard in the instrument's click a 
message from the remotest part of the globe, as it comes over 
the telegraph wire ; and recognized the voice of friends, sepa- 
rated from them by an hundred miles, as heard in the tele- 
phone — and realized what wonderful discoveries and inven- 
tions had been made, and how all the elements had been 
brought to contribute to the uses and happiness of their 
posterity. In view of all this wonderful change, would they 
not exclaim in the language of the first message ever sent 
over the telegraph wire, and sent too by a member who 
worshiped in this church of their founding, "What hath God 
wrought ? " 

In my fancy to-day, I see this church peopled with another 
congregation, a congregation of a past generation, as I saw 
it in 1826, nearly sixty years ago. I seem to hear from the 
mahogany pulpit, perched high against the wall at this end 
of the church, from which he delivered his message, the voice 
of the young pastor Joel Hawes, as he proclaimed the mes- 
sage, with the earnestness and fervor which characterized 
his early preaching, — see good Deacons Chapin and Colton 
as they passed up and down these aisles, in the distribution 
of the bread and the wine ; and as my eye passes from one 
square, high-backed pew, ranged along the wall sides of this 
church to another, and from one slip in these aisles to 
another, I see the venerable men who worshiped here, 
dressed in the costume of that day, in short clothes, white- 
topped boots, with powdered heads, and a queue down 



23 

the back, and some with a three-cornered hat ; — matronly 
women, with their sons and daughters, the younger members 
of the family, as they enter and are seated for their Sunday 
worship ; men and women who impressed me with their 
dignity, and commanded my veneration, and whose saintly 
lives furnished daily evidence of their fidelity to the church, 
and their consistency as devoted Christian men and women. 
These fathers and mothers, where are they ? Some of their 
sons and daughters are still in life, scattered here and there 
upon the earth — most have gone up higher, to the " house not 
made with hands " — some few are here to-day ; but I seem to 
see, and recognize them all, as now here assembled in this 
house in which they delighted to worship, charging you and 
this generation with greater fidelity to this old church which 
they loved, and from which many of them were buried. 

Standing here and speaking in their name and stead, and 
in the name and behalf of this First Church of Christ to 
this assembly, I would say, as Hooker did to his followers 
when he met them on the 4th of September, 1633, by the 
sea, and embraced them after their brief three years' separa- 
tion : " Now I live if ye stand fast in the Lord." Yes, this 
venerable church, whose teachings have come down through 
these two hundred and fifty years, still lives, and will con- 
tinue to live if you and its future members stand fast in 
the Lord. Thus, friends, we greet and welcome you all 
here to-day, and may God bless and prosper this old church 
in the future as He ever has done in the past. We have 
invited you to this festival, and we give you all a cordial and 
hearty welcome to-day. 



REMARKS ON THE EARLY TOPOGRAPHY OF 
HARTFORD. 

BY JOHN CALDWELL PARSONS. 

One object of this commemoration is to obtain for our- 
selves, if possible, and to perpetuate, some more accurate 
impressions of the founders of this church and town ; to 
realize, as exactly as we can, what manner of men and 
women they were ; to give due honor to their memories, 
and to gain some lessons from their example ; and to do 
this by studying, not only their main impulses and guiding 
principles, but also their daily and outward lives, their hard- 
ships, recreations, and temptations, and their physical sur- 
roundings. It is of these last that I am to say a few words. 
They will be very brief, for the material is scanty. As 
one good photograph of Richard Lord and his eight children, 
in the living room of their house, would inform us better of 
their domestic life than a volume of essays, based on ancient 
inventories and casual hints ; so a picture of Hartford, or 
an accurate map of the town in 1637, would instruct us more 
in matters of local and territorial life than a library of acute 
conjecture. But we have no such data. 

One of the early votes of the town reads : " It is ordered 
that whosoever borrows the town chain shall pay twopence a 
day for every day they keep the same, and pay for mending 
it, if it be broken in their use." This is the first and only 
record of any surveyor's instrument. Doubtless there must 
have soon come some large, if rude, compass, and perhaps 
some other apparatus for triangulation.* But of such we know 

* Pocket compasses must have been common with the first settlers, and 
maritime compasses were accessible. Reference is here made only to the sur- 
veyor's compass. 



2 5 

nothing. This poor town chain, its bent and broken links 
mended from time to time by the town blacksmith, according 
to his best judgment, served to lay out the two-acre home- 
steads, the quarter-acre lots of Soldiers' Field, and the half- 
acre house lots of the later and less important immigrants. 
No skillful engineering was required. The highways con- 
formed to the courses of the streams, and the elevations or 
ridges of ground ; and if there was a right angle on any lot, 
or at any street intersection, then, as ever since, it was by 
accident. 

Among all the ancient furniture from garrets and sheds 
that has lately reappeared in our parlors and halls, and which 
fond tradition, growing more and more positive day by clay, i 
ascribes to the Skinners, or Pratts, or Talcotts — among all 
these battered warming-pans and foot-stoves and spinning- 
wheels and rickety tables — I have yet to hear of a level, or 
compass, or other instrument of early date, intended for sur- 
veyor's use. But whatever implements of this sort the first 
settlers possessed, they preserved no results of their work in 
the form of maps or drawings. There is not extant, so far 
as I can learn, a map of the town made before the Revolu- 
tionary war, nor is there in existence an authentic picture or 
sketch of the town, or any part of it, or of any building, 
public or private, in the early days ; nor of word-painting or 
description of any kind, is there much to guide in any attempt 
to reproduce the actual appearance of Hartford in 1636. 

The site of the town, both meadow and upland, had been 
partially cleared and cultivated by the Indians in their rude 
way, and we can easily imagine the attractiveness of the spot 
as it was visited by the first explorers. There was much 
variety of soil and exposure ; abundant water supply from 
springs, brooks, and rivers ; forest trees of every kind, and 
small fruits, shrubs, and aromatic and medicinal plants ; a 
climate far less trying to poorly-housed settlers than that of 
Massachusetts Bay; a wide, navigable river of pure water, 
abounding in fish, its banks bordered by fertile meadows, never 
requiring enrichment ; and a smaller stream, not even in 
4 



26 

those days a mountain torrent of limpid water, but swiftly 
flowing, sometimes through rich arable and pasture land, and 
again cutting through the main ridge of the future settle- 
ment, leaving sandstone walls thirty or forty feet high on 
either side. 

It is a matter of course that the natural surface of the 
town has been wholly changed. Hollows have been filled, 
hills have been reduced in grade, lesser elevations have 
almost disappeared, minor water courses and springs have 
ceased to exist or are hidden in sewers. " Centinel Hill," 
the highest elevation of Main Street, in the immediate vicin- 
ity of the present Fourth Church, was at least ten or fifteen 
feet higher than the grade of to-day. It commanded a view 
of the north part of the town, the north meadows, and the 
river, and of the whole length of Main Street. The neigh- 
bors supplied themselves with earth from it so freely, that, 
in 1660 the town, not yet prepared to relinquish this post of 
observation and perhaps of defence, voted " that whosoever 
for the future shall dig or carry earth away from Sentinel Hill 
shall forfeit two shillings a load, and so for any proportion, 
without they have the consent of Ensign Talcott and John 
Allyn." But this restraint was only temporary, and the 
whole crown of the hill has been removed. Where Asylum 
Street now runs, from Ann Street to the railroad crossing, 
lay a meadow overflowed by every moderate rise of the Little 
River. The heavy soil of the uplands held water easily in 
all its hollows ; and little ponds, like those few remaining on 
Asylum, Collins, and Edwards Streets, were abundant. 
Children have skated in this century on such a pond between 
Main and Prospect Streets. 

Large water courses are sometimes permanent boundaries, 
but at Hartford the rivers too have changed. When the 
first settlers came, the Connecticut River ran farther to the 
east, and a pleasing and fertile meadow extended from Front 
Street, easterly, well into the present channel of the river. 
The Riveret, as Little River was sometimes called, has not 
changed it course where it was hemmed in by rock ; but 



27 

throughout Bushnell Park its channel has varied like its char- 
acter. It was in early days an attractive stream. The 
magnates of the town, Hooker, Stone, Goodwin, Haynes, 
and others, chose their lots on Arch Street, facing the river 
road, overlooking the current, which at first ran, unvexed 
and unpolluted, to the Connecticut. And though a tannery 
was already in operation in 1640 on what is now the park, 
opposite the Jewell works, and a mill and dam were built 
west of Ford Street, there seem to have been no groans about 
mephitic exhaltations and disgusting smells and intolerable 
nuisances. Then, as now, the inhabitants along its banks 
highly valued their water privileges, and esteemed their loca- 
tion the most delightful in the town. And even when 
Thomas Hooker, the pride and prop of church and town, 
died of fever on its banks, there was not a whisper of 
" malaria " throughout the colony. 

One of the first embarrassments of the settlers — an 
embarrassment that has long remained to haunt their succes- 
sors — was the badness of the roads. Asa general rule in 
new settlements, the better the soil the poorer the roads. 
The tenacious clay that underlies the loam in Hartford is the 
most intractable of all material for road-building. Those 
who have seen, within the last thirty years, wheels sunk to 
the hub in the native clay of Pearl Street, within two hund- 
red yards of this spot, can faintly imagine what must have 
been the condition of all the highways of the town, not only 
in 1640, but for long years afterward.* And it is easy to 
sympathize with the ardor which, 150 years ago, fired the 
people of this church in fierce and long dispute about a new 

*In May, 1774, sundry prisoners for debt in the jail, then near the corner of 
Pearl and Trumbull Streets, petition the General Assembly that the jail limits 
may be enlarged as far east as the Court House, representing that they " labour 
under many Inconveniences, hardships, and disadvantages, which are uncommon 
to prisoners in other Gaols in this Colony. By Reason that the Gaol is in so retired 
and back part of the Town, so seldom frequented by any Inhabitants of the 
Town; all the Roads which lead to it being for a Considerable part of the Year 
miery and uncomfortable to walk in, by which Reason the People who would 
otherwise be very Charitably disposed towards the Prisoners, seldom have an 
opportunity of bestowing their Charities." 



28 

location for their meeting-house, when we remember that 
every additional yard of distance between house and church 
meant additional weary struggle with mud and mire. About 
the middle of the eighteenth century some attempt was made 
to improve the condition of Main street, but little seems to 
have been done then, or for fifty years afterwards, except to 
fill the worst holes and quagmires with stone from Rocky 
Hill.* 

There is a credible tradition that, not far from the begin- 
ning of this century, the late Mrs. Daniel Wadsworth, on a 
Thanksgiving day, was unable to cross Main street, from 
her home near the City Hotel to Col. Wadsworth's house on 
the Athenaeum lot, except on horseback. How the first set- 
tlers, in bad weather, ever traveled the road to Wethersfield, 
which has been all but impassable for wheels during the mem- 
ory of many here present, is a puzzle and a wonder to us. 
Doubtless the courage of those pioneers was high, their boots 
were thick, their tastes were not as fastidious and delicate 
as those of their descendants. Necessity drove, and they 
moved in some way. But speed and ease of travel over bad 
roads was an impossibility. All the discomforts of locomo- 



* A curious petition, signed by all the clergymen of the town, among others, 
for leave to raise ;£ 6,000 by a lottery, for the repair of the roads, dated, May 8, 
1760, is to be found among the State Documents at the Capitol ; for reference 
to which I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. C. J. Hoadly, State Librarian. 
It represents " that the Streets of the Town of Hartford a great part of the 
year are extreamly bad, to Which ye Great Concourse of People Drawn into 
said Town to attend the General Assembly, Sup r and County Courts, held in 
the town, greatly Contributed : That your memorialists apprehend that the Costs 
and Expenses of Repairing the Highways and Streets in ye Town aforesaid, is 
(by Reason of ye badness of the ground, & greatness of Traveling in and 
through said Town) much greater than in any other Town in this Colony. — That 
your memorialists apprehend that to Leave the matter of Repairing said Streets 
to the Ordinary Provision made and provided in Such Cases by Law, will for- 
ever prove ineffectual for necessary repairs of Said Ways, as it has hitherto 
Done : That in the Year 1754 sundry y r Memorialists and others (finding it 
absolutely necessary) in Order to make said Ways feasible, were Obliged to 
Expend the Sum of about ^1.300 old Tenor, by Private Subscription, which 
was expended on the Town Street in said Town from the Bridge to the Court 
House, the Great benefitt of which has been Experienced by y r Hon 13 and the 
Whole Government." 



2 9 

tion, of which we hear so much in the time of the Revolu- 
tion, and down to the days of turnpikes, existed, magnified 
and intensified, when this church was established in Hartford, 
and for many subsequent years. 

I reminded you at the outset that we possess no original map 
of the town. Not many years ago, however, a map was com- 
piled by a patient and intelligent surveyor and antiquarian, 
chiefly from the records of land. It does not profess to be 
altogether accurate, but it represents substantially the orig- 
inal layout of the town. We have it here on a large scale, to 
bring the facts of the settlement as clearly as possible to 
your eyes. 

I call your attention first to the fact that it was a skillful 
and judicious plan. The broken surface of our territory, 
and the water courses which bound or divide it, forbade that 
rectangular and regular plan, which elsewhere, and especially 
in New Haven, was found to be convenient. The wisdom 
of the townsmen here has been justified by experience. 
From 1640 till after the incorporation of the city in 1784, 
144 years passed, during which but a single highway was 
added to the original streets of the town. 

Again it is noticeable that the limits of the city for nearly 
70 years after its incorporation and about 220 years from its 
settlement, did not exceed the distributed and settled portion 
of the town in 1640. In other words, the territory possessed 
and actually occupied by families in 1640, sufficed them and 
their descendants for over 200 years. It was not till 1853 
that the population, then about 20,000, had so outgrown the 
original settlement that the city limits were extended. The 
early settlers, possibly comprising 600 souls, had laid out 
ample house room and highways for 20,000 inhabitants. 
During the last thirty years we have striven to imitate the 
foresight of our ancestors, and have laid out streets enough 
to provide for the growth of the next 200 years. The city 
and town are now conterminous. But it is well to bear in 
mind that as late as 1853 the city — and I speak of the orig- 
inal city and the original town plot as identical in area — 



30 

comprised only about one-tenth of the area of the town. It 
did not include the whole of the Union depot, the site of the 
jail, and the hospital, nor any land below the South green. 

None of these old streets originally bore the names they 
do at present* Main street was the " Road from Centinel 
hill to the Palisado ; Front street — " Road from Little River 
to North Meadows ; " Trumbull street — " Centinel hill to 
Seth Grant's house ; " Pearl street was the " Road from the 
meeting-house to the mill ; " Arch, Wells, Sheldon, and Elm 
streets were " Highways by the Little River." What is now 
State street extended only to Front street. The highway to 
Boston and the East led through Ferry street to the " land- 
ing," and a flat-boat ferry was the only means of crossing 
Connecticut River till the first toll bridge was completed in 
1 8 1 1 .• Prospect street, though shown on the map as " Meeting 
House Lane," was originally only a foot-path, and was not 
laid out as a highway till 1787. Within mv own recollection, 
large, flat pieces of sandstone have been found at different 
spots along the street, apparently part of an ancient walk 
from Thomas Hooker's house to the meeting-house. 

One street, shown on the map, has been discontinued. It 
led from North Main street, westerly to the brick kiln, or 
Brick hill, crossing High street not far from Walnut street. 
A few years ago, in excavating High street, a section of this 
road was clearly discernible about four feet below the present 
surface. 

The central spot of the city so long known to us as State 
House Square was much more of a square when it was first 
called " Meeting-House Yard" by the settlers. It was then 
a rectangle, at least a third greater in area than at present. 
Encroachments upon it began at a very early date. The first 
burying-ground was located on this square — tradition says 
near the northeast corner, on what was afterwards the Law- 

*One of the first acts of the City, after its incorporation in 1784. was to name 
the streets. Pearl street, from Main to Trumbull, was "Prison street"; west 
of Trumbull, " Work House Lane "; Trumbull was " Back street"; the south- 
ern portion was "Maiden Lane"; Arch street was "School"; Sheldon street, 
" Water " ; Elm street, " Tanner's street," etc., etc. 



3i 

rence property ; not far from this was the Jail ; and near the 
southeast corner, the market. A market-house stood there 
until about 1829; and that vicinity has only just ceased — 
if it has ceased — to be a market place for hay, straw, and 
wood. Before 1640 it was seen that the burying-ground on 
the square was insufficient and ill-located ; and in that year 
the town purchased of " Richard Olmsted, parcel of his 
Lot for a Burying Place," which continued to this century to 
be the principal burial ground of the town. This is the cem- 
etery in the rear of this church, and it at first extended to 
Main street, including the site of this house and the lecture- 
room, and of the buildings next north. Probably interments 
were made occasionally on private grounds. The monu- 
ment of Dr. Norman Morison, who died in 1761, and was 
buried in his own garden, still stands in front of St. Paul's 
church on Market street, with that of another of his family. 

The town retained for a long time the banks of Little 
River for mills sites and public uses, but afterwards (1780 to 
1820) leased some of the land for long terms, at what we now 
consider a nominal rent. Most, if not all these leases, were 
assigned by the town in 1824 to Trinity, then Washington 
College, as an inducement to its location in Hartford ; and 
the college still collects the rents, where the leases have not 
been extinguished or transferred. 

I cannot discover that any land in the town is now in the 
possession of the descendants of the original owners, having 
been continuously in the possession of the family. Some, 
through female heirs, may possibly be so held. The property 
No. 459 Main street, has been for many generations in the 
Talcott family, but it does not appear to have belonged orig- 
inally to John Talcott. His home lot was on the opposite 
side of Main street, and Talcott street was laid out through 
it by Samuel Talcott in 1761. The adjacent land was dis- 
tributed to his daughter Mary, who married James Watson 
of N. Y. By her, Talcott street was widened in 1800, and 
in 1 8 14 her interest in the land was sold. A part of the 
old building on the south corner of Main and Talcott street, 



32 

is reputed to have been built by John Talcott in 1646, and 
to be the oldest existing building in town. 

With these few scraps of historical topography, I invite 
you to examine the map, so clearly and handsomely enlarged 
from Mr. Porter's diagram, by one of our number, Mr. Solon 
P. Davis. 



A picture of the Rev. Joel Hawes which hung near the desk was 
then unveiled, and Mr. Cone said : " This portrait of the Rev. Dr. 
Hawes is to be presented to this church and society by Rev. Dr. Henry 
J. Van Lennep, his son-in-law, whose health does not permit him to be 
present to-day. His son, Mr. E. J. Van Lennep, will take this opportu- 
nity in behalf of his father to present it." 

He said: 

It is my privilege to represent one who was for many years 
intimately connected with this church. By no one could the 
news of this anniversary have been received with greater 
pleasure than by Dr. Van Lennep, and it is indeed a disap- 
pointment to him that he is not able to be with you to-day. 
It was in the chapel of this church that he was received into 
Christian fellowship, when a lad of sixteen years, by your 
beloved pastor, Dr. Hawes. And as your representative he 
went, a few years later, to his life work in the service of 
foreign missions. During his thirty years of missionary life 
in Turkey, he always felt that the members of this church 
were among his warmest friends and supporters. From the 
Christian fellowship of this church also Mrs. Van Lennep 
went to the mission field, and her family, the family of the 
Rev. Isaac Bird, were for many years associated with you in 
Christian work here in Hartford. Bound to you by such 
strong ties and hallowed memories, they rejoice in the 
evidences of your continued vigor and prosperity. 

Although this portrait came into the possession of Dr. 
Van Lennep in accordance with the wish of Dr. and Mrs. 
Hawes, yet he has always felt that when a fitting occasion 
offered, it should be presented to the church in whose behalf 
Dr. Hawes labored so faithfully and well. 



33 

You are to enjoy the privilege of listening to several emi- 
nent men who have in times past occupied the important 
position of pastors of this church ; and in the course of a 
historical sketch the lives of their predecessors will pass 
before you. The portrait which I now have the honor to 
present, will, however, serve to give greater vividness to 
some of the scenes over which Dr. Hawes presided. With 
this devoted servant of the Center Church are associated 
cherished memories which the sight of these familiar fea- 
tures will undoubtedly recall to the minds of many here 
present. 

And when the young look upon this kindly face, may 
they be told of the earnest words that fell from his lips, of 
the warm heart that ever sympathized with youth, and led so 
many into the fold of Christ. 

Often and earnestly has this good man invoked the bless- 
ing of God upon his hearers, and signally have you been 
blessed in the past. May the same blessing rest upon and 
abide with you ever more. 

Rev. Dr. Walker in behalf of the church received the portrait, and 
in returning thanks for it, alluded to the fact that of the older pastors 
there were but two whose portraits were extant, Drs. Strong and Hawes. 



Thursday Afternoon. 





tr^cu^^u/^LJte^^ 



THE HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 

BY GEORGE LEON WALKER, PASTOR. 
I 

A historical discourse has been announced as one of the 
features of this celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary of the First Church of Christ in Hartford. But 
the attempt to tell the story of two and a half centuries at a 
single sitting of an afternoon congregation, is much like 
depicting the course of the Connecticut river on the page of 
a school-boy's atlas. The map-maker indeed undertakes the 
attempt, and succeeds after a manner. But it is by heroically 
ignoring all minor details and confining his notice only to 
the main features of mountain headland and long river-sweep 
and abrupt bend and general direction and losing necessarily 
thereby almost all the beauty and a chief part of the truth of 
the object he attempts to delineate. Still a school-chart of 
the Connecticut is better than no map of it at all, and a des- 
perately foreshortened account of this Church's experiences 
may be preferable to none. 

I am comforted, furthermore, in forecasting the deficiencies 
of the present discourse, by remembering that other papers, 
to be presented on special topics connected with our Church, 
will in a considerable degree supplement those deficiences, 
and discharge me of any present obligation to refer at length 
to the matters with which they are particularly to deal. Nor 
can it I think be inappropriate for me also to say, that fore- 
seeing the inevitable limitations of an anniversary discourse 
to tell adequately the tale which ought to be told, I have 
already in a state of large readiness for the press, and hope 
before many months to complete and to publish, a more 
detailed narrative of this First Church's history than any 



38 

such occasion as this would give hearing for. And I refer 
to this the more freely at this time, as affording me opportu- 
nity to add that some statements of the present discourse, 
which may be more or less unexpected or counter to state- 
ments heretofore made by others, I shall in those more leis- 
urely pages undertake to verify ; leaving them here simply as 
statements, invoking only a suspension of judgment till the 
promised evidence be produced. 

It is therefore but to a very compressed and birds-eye view 
of this story of two hundred and fifty years, that I now a 
little while invite you. 

On the nth of October, .1633, Rev. Thomas Hooker and 
Rev. Samuel Stone, both ministers of repute in England, 
who had landed in Boston from the same ship which brought 
Rev. John Cotton and Mr. John Haynes the 14th of Sep- 
tember previous, were ordained, respectively, Pastor and 
Teacher of a Church of Christ at Newtown, now Cambridge, 
Massachusetts. The Church over which they were thus set 
had in all probability been organized at an earlier day, and 
quite likely the previous autumn, as the congregation who 
mainly composed it had been established in a house of wor- 
ship "with a bell upon it" in Newtown sometime in 1632. 
This probable earlier period of church-gathering accounts for 
Winthrop's silence respecting any such important event as 
the gathering of the Church, in his account of the ordination 
of its officers, and corresponds with Johnson's designation of 
it as the eighth in order in New England ; a position in rela- 
tion to others of which there appears no adequate evidence 
that this Church should be deprived, and which carries its 
birthday some months, and perhaps a year, back of that first 
distinctly recorded date which we celebrate to-day. The 
silence of Winthrop respecting the institution of any other 
officers than the Pastor and Teacher, makes the suggestion 
reasonable that William Goodwin, who had arrived with sev- 
eral other prominent members of the Church on September 
16th of 1632; had been inducted into his office of Ruling Elder 
at a previous date, and perhaps at the formation of the 
Church. 



39 

But whenever gathered, this Newtown Church doubtless 
proceeded substantially after the same manner as did the 
other early churches of Massachusetts Bay. These churches 
were all of them formed of men and women who had been 
members of the English Establishment. Few of them had 
been, in their own land, distinctly Separatists in principle. 
Many of them could have lived always in the communion of 
the church of their birth, if a few points of its polity could 
have been reformed in consonance with their convictions. 
They were Puritans, not Separates. Still, three thousand 
miles of watery distance, and the homogeneous quality of a 
wilderness society, were great facts which could not be with- 
out influence in shaping the new ecclesiastical framework of 
their religious life. The example, and the direct influence 
also of the avowedly Separatist church of Plymouth, had not 
been inoperative. In the gathering of the church of Salem 
in 1629, which in a manner set a pattern for all the others in 
the Bay, that agency is distinctly traceable. And in the 
case of this particular Newtown Church it is quite certain, 
furthermore, that however it may have been with the mem- 
bership in general, the Pastor had come from his exile in 
Holland, and the Teacher from his Puritan Lectureship in 
England, with quite definitely pronounced convictions of the 
competency of every congregation of Christian people to 
constitute themselves into a church, and to appoint the 
officers they supposed demanded by Scripture. 

The particular manner of this self-erection of a band of 
Christians into a church body-politic, was the solemn adop- 
tion of a Covenant, by which visible document of agreement 
and sacred confederation, the signers regarded themselves 
as made into a Church of Christ, having all necessary powers 
of admission, discipline, choice of officers, and ordination of 
them to their appointed work. 

The form of words constituting the Newtown church- 
covenant is unknown. It has shared the fatality which has 
buried the entire documentary records of this Church's first 



4 o 

fifty-two years — the most important years to have preserved — 
in oblivion. 

What its phraseology, what the nature of its stipulations, 
who precisely were its signers, how many, in what order, 
how nearly it may have agreed with formulas which appear 
from time to time on the records subsequently, in substantial 
identity, till the adoption, within the lifetime of some of its 
present membership, of a formal Confession of Faith and 
Covenant, of modern and somewhat clumsy type, in 1822 — 
all these things are to a degree uncertain. 

The document, however, was not likely to be essentially 
different from several others of that period which time has 
spared to us, and of which the covenant of the Boston church, 
adopted about two years before, is an example. And the 
names of the signers, at least the male portion of them, can 
be, for the greater part, sufficiently determined from contem- 
poraneous and shortly subsequent civil records. 

The signers were a company of men and women mainly 
from a region a little to the north and east of London, and 
chiefly from the county of Essex, who with a few others 
joined with them had left England under the primary 
impulse of a desire for liberty to worship and serve God as 
conscience commanded them. 

They had to some considerable extent been acquainted 
with one another, and especially with the Pastor newly 
ordained over them ; having lived, many of them, in the near 
vicinage of Braintree and Chelmsford where his fame was a 
household word. The strengthening spirit of prelatical 
authority significantly represented in the person of Arch- 
bishop Laud, who as bishop of London had a considerable 
time held them under his severe diocesan sway, left them 
little hope that the liberties they had come to deem essential 
to Christ's freemen could any longer have scope in Eng- 
land. One after another of the ancient Papistic usages 
which they supposed the Reformation to have abolished was 
reimposed upon them by the harmoniously co-operant author- 
ity of the bishop and the king. One after another of their 



41 

accepted preachers was silenced and exiled. Some of them 
were imprisoned and pilloried. The prospect for themselves 
and their children was darkening daily. It is not strange 
that in this condition of affairs they turned to the New 
World as their only hope. 

Some time in 1632 a considerable number of them left 
their homes, and, arrived in New England, began "to sit 
down at Mt. Wollaston " in the township now known as 
Quincy. These were by " order of court," in August of that 
year, removed to Newtown. Governor Winthrop, in record- 
ing the event on the 14th of the month, calls them by the 
double appellation of the " Braintree Company " and " Mr. 
Hooker's Company." Mr. Hooker was then in Holland and 
did not arrive for thirteen months afterward, which of itself 
suggests the fact corroborated in other ways, that the people 
gathered in the Newtown church-fellowship were a special 
companionship, having, many of them, recognized relations 
of obligation and expectancy, long before he arrived, to the 
Pastor who was on the nth of October, 1633, set over them. 

The Pastor who at that time was " ordained " was a man 
who had already exercised a ministry of thirteen or more 
years, had received Episcopal ordination in the English 
Church, and had stood in practical pastoral connection with 
several Christian congregations. His transcendent abilities 
and his fatherly relationship to this Church and colony demand 
that even in a cursory sketch like the present, some space be 
given to his imposing figure. 

Thomas Hooker was born at the little township of Marfield, 
in Leicester Co., England; it is believed on July 7, 1586. 
The parish records of Tilton parish-church, to which Marfield 
ecclesiastically belongs, are non-existent previous to 1610, 
and do not therefore contain the entry of his baptism. They 
contain, however, the record of the burial of his father, 
mother, and eldest brother ; which last, dying childless, and 
leaving bequests to his brother Thomas' sons in America, 
causes the name henceforth to vanish from Tilton memorials. 

Marfield is a little hamlet of only five houses (having had 
6 



42 

six twenty-two years before Hooker's birth) lying in a 
pleasant valley a mile and a half north from Tilton hill. 
With the exception of the one vanished dwelling, some old 
oak timbers of which still remain, the scene is probably not 
appreciably different from what it was when looked at through 
young Thomas' eyes. Still the sweet fields smile with 
luxuriant harvests around, and still the most prominent object 
to arrest the eye is the stately church of St. Peter's at " Tilton 
super moutem" whose peal of six bells rings out now as it 
did then from the arches of its beautiful spire. In this really 
noble church edifice, rising above the thatch-covered village 
that clusters about the crown of the hill on which it stands, 
and tenanted here and there by monumental effigies of great 
personages of the parish back to early in the twelfth century, 
young Hooker doubtless was baptized, in the font which can 
still be seen, and gained his earliest impressions of public 
worship. 

From his humble home at Marfield he went at about 
fourteen years of age to the newly established preparatory 
school of Market-Bosworth, about twenty-five miles west- 
ward from his birthplace. It was probably while he was at 
this school, and about a year before leaving it for the 
university, that the great and termagant Queen Elizabeth 
died, and the uncouth and polemic James succeeded to the 
monarchy. 

Cotton Mather says Hooker's parents " were neither unable 
nor unwilling to bestow upon him a liberal education," which 
may in part be true ; but he was matriculated " Sizar " of 
Queen's College, Cambridge, on March 27, 1604, the title 
signifying a certain inferiority at least, of pecuniary resources. 
He was however, soon, at some unascertainable date, trans- 
ferred to Emmanuel college, where he took his degree A. B., 
in January, 1608, and A. M. in 161 1. 

Here at Emmanuel, in the very focus of Puritanism in 
that most exciting period, he resided as undergraduate and 
afterward as Fellow on Sir Wolstan Dixie's foundation, from 
about his eighteenth to his twenty-eighth or thirtieth and 



43 

possibly even thirty-second year. These were great years in 
English history. They covered the events of the gunpowder 
plot, the exile of Robinson and his Scrooby church to Hol- 
land, the forcing of Episcopacy by the whilom Presbyterian 
James into Scotland, the dissolution of James' parliaments, 
the negotiations for the marriage of prince Charles with the 
Spanish Infanta, the execution of Raleigh, the outbreak of 
the Protestant and Catholic struggle of the Thirty-years' war, 
the planting of Plymouth Colony in America. 

But somewhere in this period came to Hooker a greater 
personal event than any of them, his individual spiritual con- 
version. This experience was preceded and accompanied 
in his case with the intensest perturbations of soul, which 
probably lent something of vigor, and it may be of somber- 
ness and severity, to some of his after religious views of the 
necessary processes of spiritual change. 

He appears after this transcendent event in his history, to 
have fulfilled certain catechetical and lecturing functions at 
the university ; but about 1620 he became rector of the dona- 
tive parish of Esher in Surrey, a little place sixteen miles 
west from London. Here he married his wife Susannah, a 
" waiting gentlewoman " of a Mr. Drake who was the donor 
of the parish living. 

From hence, after some ineffectual attempts to secure his 
establishment at Colchester in Essex, he went, apparently 
sometime in 1625 or 1626 to Chelmsford, also in Essex, as 
Lecturer at St. Mary's church, of which Rev. John Michael- 
son was rector. These Puritan lectureships were an out- 
growth of the religious movement of the age, and were 
designed to secure a more efficient preaching service than 
could often be had from the legal incumbent of the parish. 
From this beautiful church of St. Mary's, Hooker's influence 
radiated through all the adjacent country. Throngs flocked 
from all quarters to listen to his words. His personal power 
over those brought in conference with him was immense. 

These facts soon attracted the attention of Laud, then 
bishop of the diocese, and Mr. Hooker was forced, sometime 



44 

late in 1629, against the remonstrance in his behalf of a 
large body of Conformist ministers of Essex county, to lay 
down his ministry. Thus silenced, he removed from Chelms- 
ford to Little Baddow, four miles away, and taught a school, 
having John Eliot, afterwards the Apostle Eliot and who 
was converted in his family, as assistant. But his influence 
still haunted the region. Conference with him was still 
possible and was dreaded by the authorities. Sometime early 
in 1630 he was cited to appear before the High Commission 
court, but convinced of the bodily danger of doing so, he 
forfeited his bonds with the consent of his sureties, and after 
a narrow escape from his pursuers got off for Holland. 

Arrived in Holland Mr. Hooker preached temporarily at 
Amsterdam, then nearly two years at Delft, and afterward 
awhile at Rotterdam. Here he united with the celebrated 
Dr. Ames in the authorship of a volume, published in 1633, 
entitled " A Fresh Suit against Human Ceremonies in God's 
Worship." While thus laboring in Holland, overtures were 
made to him by some of his former Essex County hearers 
to accompany or follow them into America. Attempts were 
made to join him with Rev. John Cotton in the same enter- 
prise. These attempts failed, but overtures being success- 
fully made to another to become his assistant, Mr. Hooker 
crossed to England, narrowly escaped arrest, embarked on 
the Griffin, and on Sept. 4, 1633, reached Boston, whence he 
soon joined the waiting flock at Newtown, with the Apostolic 
salutation, " Now I live if ye stand fast in the Lord." 

The other minister who was secured as assistant to Mr. 
Hooker in the New England enterprise was Rev. Samuel 
Stone. Mr. Stone was born at Hertford (commonly pro- 
nounced Harford), in Hertfordshire, England, and baptized 
at the church of All Saints, July 30, 1602. He was probably 
prepared for the university at Hale's Grammar School in his 
native town, and was matriculated pensioner at Emmanuel 
College, April 19, 1620. He took his A.B. degree in 1624, 
and his A.M. in 1627. These university years of Stone, 
also, were great years in English history. They saw the 



45 

departure of the Pilgrims, the accession of Charles First, the 
marriage with Henrietta Maria, the reception of Laud as the 
King's chief ecclesiastical adviser, the levy of Charles' first 
forced loan, the degradation of Chief Justice Crewe, the 
disastrous issue of the siege of Rochelle. 

After leaving the university, Mr. Stone studied divinity 
awhile in the very peculiar and interesting theological school 
of Rev. Richard Blackerby, an eminent Puritan divine, who 
" not being capable of a benefice because he could not 
subscribe," amid a good deal of tribulation, boarded and 
educated divinity students for twenty-three years. 

From this school, at Aspen in Essex, Stone went, in 1630, 
as Puritan lecturer to Towcester in Northamptonshire, 
recommended thereto by Thomas Shepard, some years after- 
ward Mr. Hooker's son-in-law and pastor of the church at 
Newtown which was formed after the departure of this Church 
to Hartford. It was while successfully occupying this Tow- 
cester lectureship, and doubtless in view of his recognized 
learning and powers, that the proposals were made to Mr. 
Stone which brought him into connection with Mr. Hooker 
and with the Church to which he was to bear the relation of 
Teacher. A quick-witted, resourceful, able man, his adroit- 
ness saved Mr. Hooker from arrest just before their embarka- 
tion, and there is no evidence that their intimate relationship 
was not an occasion of satisfaction to them always. 

Set thus in their appointed positions as practical and doc- 
trinal expounders of the Gospel, and ordained probably by 
the laying on of the hands of William Goodwin, and some 
two or three lay brethren of the Church, and having chosen 
Andrew Warner, and possibly some one beside, Deacon, 
the Newtown Church was, after the Congregational way, 
a fully equipped organization, and was ready for the Lord's 
work. And when autumnal days really settled down in 
1633 upon the little town, William Wood, writing this same 
year, was able to describe the Newtown village as " one of 
the neatest and best compacted towns in New England." 

But Newtown was not destined to be long the home of this 



4 6 

Christian companionship. There was, all along from very 
near the arrival of the Griffin's company with Mr. Hooker, 
Mr. Cotton, Mr. Haynes, and Mr. Stone, a certain uneasiness 
in respect to the Newtown location, all the causes of which 
are somewhat difficult to trace, but which are more or less 
distinctly indicated in various documentary records. 

It was only seven months after the induction of Mr. 
Hooker into the pastorate, that the people of " Newtown 
complained, May, 1634, of straitness for want of land, espe- 
cially meadow, and desired leave of the Court to look out 
either for enlargement or removal." Unadjusted at this 
time, the matter again came before the Court in September, 
at which time the argument for removal, and to Connecticut 
as the objective point, had reached this degree of definiteness 
in statement: " 1. Their want of accommodation for their 
cattle, so as they were not able to maintain their ministers, 
nor could receive any more of their friends to help them. . . . 
2. The fruitfulness and commodiousness of Connecticut, 
and the danger of having it possessed by others, Dutch or 
English. 3. The strong bent of their spirits to remove 
thither." The matter was excitedly discussed. The very 
" reverend and godly " William Goodwin, the Ruling Elder of 
the congregation at Newtown," was rebuked for " unreverend 
speech " in open Court. A grant of enlargement, embracing 
the territory now known as the towns of Brookline, Brighton, 
Newtown, and Arlington was made. There was hoped to be 
an amicable adjustment. 

But it did not last. The " strong bent " of the Newtown 
people's spirits to " remove " continued. The territorial ques- 
tion could not have been the only question. They were 
perhaps a hundred and twenty families. The population on 
the same soil is now upwards of seventy thousand souls. 
Other causes than lack of ground in five townships to pas- 
ture the few cattle of Newtown's third summer, must have 
conspired to create this restlessness. What were they? 
The historian Hubbard, writing within fifty years of these 
events, and Dr. Benjamin Trumbull in his account long sub- 



47 

sequently of the death of Mr. Haynes, both intimate that 
considerations respecting the relative influence of the chief 
leaders of the two towns, Boston and Newtown (Winthrop 
and Cotton in the one, and Haynes and Hooker in the other) 
had something more to do with the matter than territorial 
ones. Some good people have been quite horrified at this. 
But horrifying or not this was probably the case. 

Nor do I see anything in it to apologize for. The New- 
town people were in a remarkable degree a homogeneous 
company, acquainted with one another and with their Pastor 
in the old country. The came into the pre-existing commu- 
nity of the Bay with something of the distinct character of 
a body corporate. Their views of civil policy were from the 
outset somewhat different from their's who preceded them. 
Mr. Cotton and Mr. Hooker were too positively marked 
characters, however friendly, always wholly to harmonize ; 
and there were some special provocations, if not to jealousy 
at least to willingness to move in less closely parallel paths, 
attending the tumult made in the colony about " Mr. Cotton 
his sitting down," who had been once applied to as Mr. 
Hooker's assistant or colleague in the American enterprise. 

Add to this, that already, in 1635, the theological differ- 
ences, which afterward developed into such prominence over 
the views of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, and in reference to 
which Cotton and Hooker were to a degree antagonized, 
began to show some of their earlier and unhappy results, and 
it is not strange that with the sense of competency to their 
own affairs within them, and the sight of the sweet meadows 
of the Connecticut a hundred miles away alluring them, their 
" strong bent " to go should at last prevail. It did prevail. 
Some of them came in the autumn of 1635, suffering 
immense hardship in the following winter of prolonged and 
almost unparalleled severity. 

But the greater part delayed their pilgrimage till spring. 
They sold their Newtown habitations to the congregation of 
Rev. Thomas Shepard, who occupied the vacated village. 



4 8 

And on the thirty-first of May, 1636, they set out on their 
journey. 

It is the season in our New England climate when the 
landscape has just burst into verdure. The streams run 
full with the melted snows of winter. The ground is spotted 
with the anemone and wild violet. The days are alive with 
promise, but the nights, though short, are damp and chill. 
The Newtown pilgrims struck out into the unpathwayed 
woods. Their guides were the compass and the northern 
star. Evening by evening they made camp and slept senti- 
neled by the blazing fires. One of their number, the pastor's 
wife, was carried on a litter because of her infirmity. 

The lowing of a hundred and sixty cattle sounding through 
the forest aisles, not to mention the bleating of goats and 
the squealing of swine, summoned them to each morning's 
advance. 

The day began and ended with the voice of prayer. At 
some point of their fortnight's journey a Sabbath intervened, 
when the camp rested and the people listened to the exhorta- 
tions of their ministers and joined in solemn psalm. Their 
toilsome and devious way led them near the mouth of the 
Chicopee, close by where now stands Springfield. Thence 
was a comparatively easy pathway. Meadow lands were in 
sight always. 

The wide, full river, flowing with a larger tide than now, 
was crossed on rafts and rude constructed boats ; and on the 
soil where we now stand, cheered by the sight of some 
pioneer attempts at settlement made by those of their num- 
ber who had come the season previous, the Ark of the First 
Church of Hartford rested, and the weary pilgrims who bore 
it hither stood still. 

Arrived upon the grounds one of the earliest transactions 
of the new comers was the purchase of the land from the 
Indians. This seems to have been done in 1636, and Rev. 
Samuel Stone and Elder William Goodwin were the agents in 
the negotiation. The territory embraced in the purchase 
was about coincident with the territory subsequently known 
as the township of Hartford. 



49 

The portion needed for the immediate uses of the little 
village was parceled out into lots covering most of the older 
portions of this city : those assigned to the Pastor, the 
Teacher, and the Ruling Elder fronted on the Little River ; 
Mr. Goodwin's being on the corner of what is now Arch and 
Main Streets ; Mr. Stone's next eastward, and Mr. Hooker's 
beyond Mr. Stone's. Dea. Andrew Warner's lot lay across 
the Little River opposite Mr. Stone's. 

The central point of interest in an ecclesiastical point of 
view was of course the Meeting-House. This was situated 
on Meeting-House Yard, a tract of territory covering the 
ground now known as State House Square, and of somewhat 
larger extent, especially on the northern and southern sides. 
Here, somewhere on the portion now covered by the build- 
ings of Central Row, a temporary structure first afforded a 
meeting place for public worship. This, within about four 
years, gave place to another destined to fill its purpose nearly 
one hundred years, situated on the east side of the square, 
near the corner made by the road leading down to the Con- 
necticut River ; a spot coinciding nearly enough with the 
vacant space just west of the American House or its Hall. 
Not far from the meeting-house, on the same public square, 
were those other more secular conservators of public welfare, 
the jail, the stocks, and whipping-post. The first burial place 
of the dead — for men and women would die amid all the 
hopes of a new colony on a fresh planted continent — lay on 
the northerly side of Meeting-House Yard, westward upon 
or above the site of the present City Building. The spot 
was formerly higher than now, and its leveling removed alike 
monuments and graves. 

The first rude church, however, was hardly built and the 
plain dwellings of the pilgrims made habitable, before it 
became necessary to fight for home and life. It was only 
May, 1637, when the expedition against the Pequots, led by 
Captain John Mason, took place ; a really heroic and notable 
enterprise, in which Mr. Stone went with the small army as 
chaplain, while Mr. Hooker as an encouragement declared 
7 



5o 

to the departing brothers and sons of the anxious little com- 
monwealth, that " the Pequots should be bread for them." 
The result was as the Pastor prophesied, and the Pequot's 
power was permanently broken. 

It a little revolts modern feeling, however, to find Mr. 
Ludlow and Mr. Pynchon and several other presumably 
good Christians carrying to Boston shortly after, the skins 
and scalps of the vanquished " Sassacus and his brother, and 
five other Pequot sachems, who, being fled to the Mohawks 
for shelter . . . were by them surprised and slain." Even 
in that hard age there was one man, Roger Williams, who 
said, " Those dead hands were no pleasing sight." 

But even the exigencies of war and wilderness could not 
divert the attention of those pioneers of the church from 
questions of theology. 

On the fifth of August following the Pequot slaughter in 
May, Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone arrived in Boston, through 
the forests from Hartford — or Newtown, as Hartford was 
still called in accordance with the Massachusetts name — to 
attend an ecclesiastical council concerning the peculiar doc- 
trines promulgated by Mrs. Anne Hutchinson and her brother- 
in-law, Mr. Wheelwright, which had thrown the Bay Colony 
in general, and Boston church in particular, into ferment. 
Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Pynchon, and others who carried the 
Pequot skins and scalps along with them, went as delegates 
on the same business. 

The churches of the entire colony were turmoiled. Mr. 
Wilson, pastor of the Boston church, and Mr. Cotton, its 
teacher, had for some months been regarded as taking differ- 
ent sides. Public fasts had been appointed in January and 
July previous, in view of the dissensions in the churches. 
In May, some of the Massachusetts soldiers, called out in 
the Pequot matter, had declined to go with Mr. Wilson as 
chaplain, alleging that he was " under a covenant of works." 

The civil government had shifted hands on the issues 
involved, Governor Vane losing his election and returning to 
England. In this condition of things a Synod was called, 



5i 

to which the representatives of the scarce-rooted Connecticut 
churches went. The sessions lasted twenty-two days. Rev. 
Peter Bulkley of Concord and Mr. Hooker of Hartford were 
moderators. As a result of the deliberations, eighty-two 
opinions more or less intimately connected with Mrs. 
Hutchinson's teachings were condemned as, "some, blas- 
phemous, others erroneous, and all unsafe." It was further 
resolved with special reference to Mrs. Hutchinson's Bible- 
reading meetings, that though females meeting " some few 
together" for prayer and edification might be allowed, yet 
that " a set assembly where sixty or more did meet every 
week, and one woman took on her the whole exercise " was 
" disorderly and without rule." The assembly broke up on 
the 22d of September, and so Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone had 
chance to go back to Hartford after more than two months' 
absence, during which time, doubtless, Ruling Elder Good- 
win had "exercised by way of prophecy" in their place. 

The following year, 1638, witnessed the preliminary pro- 
ceedings, very imperfectly recorded, of the formulation of 
that body of Fundamental Law, drawn up at the direction of 
the Court by Roger Ludlow, which has been called by Dr. 
Leonard Bacon the "first written constitution in the history of 
nations." But our chief interest in the matter on this occasion 
is not a historic one, looked at from the point of civil admin- 
istration. The interest as connected with this Church is 
two-fold. It is, first, that the form of government here in 
distinct prescription established, was simply an extension to 
the domain of secular affairs of the principles already adopted 
in religious matters — the mutual covenant and agreement of 
those associated, as under God the ultimate law. And 
second, and more particularly, because of the agency in 
establishing this principle, of the wise and far-sighted Pastor 
of this Church. We are indebted for the discovery of defin- 
ite evidence of this agency, to the skill and research of our 
distinguished antiquarian townsman, Dr. J. H. Trumbull. The 
evidence lay undiscovered more than two and a quarter cen- 
turies in a little almost undecipherable manuscript volume, 



52 

written by a young man in our neighbor town of Windsor. 
In it is found an abstract of Mr. Hooker's lecture given on 
May 31, 1638. The doctrine laid down in the discourse is, 
"That the choice of public magistrates belongs unto the 
people by God's own allowance. . . . That they who have 
the power to appoint officers and magistrates, it is in their 
power, also, to set the bounds and limitations of the power 
and place to which they call them." 

The preacher declares that "the foundation of authority 
is laid, firstly, in the free consent of the people ; " and the 
"use" which he derived from the principles laid down was 
an exhortation to take the liberty they had in their power. 

Dr. Bacon says, " That sermon by Thomas Hooker from 
the pulpit of the First Church of Hartford is the earliest 
known suggestion of a fundamental law, enacted not by royal 
charter, nor by concession from any previously existing 
government, but by the people themselves — a primary and 
supreme law by which the government is constituted, and 
which not only provides for the free choice of magistrates by 
the people but also ' sets the bounds and limitations of the 
power and place to which ' each magistrate is called." Eight 
months later the Fundamental Laws embodying these princi- 
ples were "sentenced, ordered, and decreed." It is impossi- 
ble not to recognize the Master-hand. It diminishes nothing 
of the proper honor of Roger Ludlow to say that the Pastor 
of the Hartford Church was Connecticut's great legislator 
also. 

In the May following the adoption of the new Constitution 
in January, 1639, Mr. Hooker and Mr. Haynes, the governor, 
were in Boston on the business of a treaty of confederation 
with Massachusetts ; and the same year saw the organization 
of the church at New Haven, where the tradition is that Mr. 
Hooker and Mr. Stone were present as representatives of the 
Hartford Church. 

Meanwhile events were onmoving in England. The par- 
liament, known as the Long Parliament, began its session in 
1640. Laud, who had been the chief agent in driving out of 



53 

the old country a large part of the ministers in the new, was 
himself imprisoned in 1641. The king or the parliament was 
to break. The ecclesiastical constitution shared the general 
disorder. Presbyterianism, Episcopacy, Independency, were 
all eagerly contended for, though by parties having very 
unequal numerical strength. In this state of affairs a 
General Assembly was ordered by Parliament, and being 
contemplated the American exiles were not forgotten. Mr. 
Cotton of Boston, Mr. Davenport of New Haven, and Mr. 
Hooker of Hartford, were sent to by the Earl of Warwick, 
Oliver Cromwell, and some thirty-seven other Independent 
members of parliament, to " assist in the synod." Mr. Cotton 
and Mr. Davenport inclined to go. Mr. Hooker, with 
characteristic sagacity discerning the numerical weakness of 
the Independent interest in the assembly as it was actually 
constituted, declined. The matter fell through with all the 
American divines, and the event proved anew the accuracy 
of the Hartford Pastor's judgment. 

The English Assembly issued a Presbyterian platform. 
This fact gave new encouragement to a few eminent minis- 
ters in Massachusetts colony whose views favored that form 
of church policy. Fearful of the spread of such views to the 
subversion of the " congregational way," it was deemed best 
to hold a synod in Cambridge to emphasize Independent 
principles. The synod met in September, 1643, and was com- 
posed of "all the elders in the country," about fifty in 
number. Here again, as in 1637, Mr. Hooker, joined this 
time with Mr. Cotton, was one of the moderators. 

But apparently the conclusions were not conclusive. The 
party of Presbyterianism grew. A meeting was held at 
Cambridge, July 1, 1645, at which it was agreed to send 
over to England for publication certain books in reply to the 
Presbyterian arguments, which had been written by ministers 
here. Among these books were Davenport's answer to 
Paget known as the " Power of Congregational Churches," 
and Hooker's " Survey of the Summe of Church Discipline " 
in reply to Rutherford's " Due Right of Presbyteries." The 



54 

first copies of these books were lost in the vessel which sailed 
from New Haven in January, 1646, and never heard of more, 
save in the phantom of it which appeared two years and five 
months afterward, and which John Davenport declared was 
sent for the comfort of surviving friends of the vanished crew. 
The books, thus lost, were laboriously rewritten, again sent, 
and published ; Hooker's, however, not printed till after his 
death. Of Mr. Hooker's Survey of Church Discipline it can 
here only be said, that with far more of erudition and histori- 
cal learning, it divides with John Cotton's " Keyes " the place 
of chief authority in early Congregational literature. 

By May of 1646, the peril of a subversion of ecclesiastical 
usages seemed so great that Massachusetts summoned the 
synod which had passed into history as the Cambridge 
Synod, and the promulgator of the Platform of that name. 
The synod met on the 1st of September, for its first fort- 
night's session. Mr. Stone was present, but Mr. Hooker 
was not there. He wrote a letter to his son-in-law Shepherd 
excusing himself on account of age and infirmities. The 
synod adjourned until June 8th of the following year. 
Regathered at that date it was almost immediately adjourned 
again by reason of an epidemic throughout New England. 

The sickness was very severe in Hartford. Many of the 
citizens died of it. One of them Treasurer William Whit- 
ing. But its most shining mark was the Pastor of this 
Church. Governor Winthrop in his diary records : " That 
which made the stroke more sensible and grievous both to 
them [of Connecticut] and to all the country was the death 
of that faithful servant of the Lord, Mr. Thomas Hooker, 
pastor of the church in Hartford, who for piety, prudence, 
wisdom, zeal, learning, and what else might make him 
serviceable in the place and time he lived in, might be com- 
pared with men of greatest note ; and he shall need no other 
praise ; the fruits of his labors in both Englands shall pre- 
serve an honorable and happy remembrance of him for ever." 
This wise and eloquent eulogy cannot receive at this time, 
and needs scarcely at any time, any amplification. Some 



55 

twenty-three volumes, mainly of sermons and expositions, 
remain to us from Mr. Hooker's hand. They give us, in 
their vivacity, pungency, and power, a little glimpse of the 
majestic man. His theology was of the sternest Calvinistic 
type. He was a " Hopkinsian before Hopkins." But min- 
gled with all his sternness and strength is a beauty and 
felicity most unusual to his time, unexampled among his 
New England associates. In' extent of learning probably 
none of them but John Norton could compare with him. 
He was a man of whom it was said that " on the Lord's 
business he could put a king in his pocket." 

Mr. Hooker died July 7, 1647, at the age of sixty-one, and 
it is said on the anniversary of his birth. His mortal part 
lies mouldered back to dust just behind this church. His 
memory is that of one of the best and greatest of men. 

Upon the death of Mr. Hooker the Church does not seem 
to have contemplated the possibility of long continuing with- 
out another minister. Mr. Stone was only forty-four years 
old, but the theory of the dual ministry with which the New 
England churches had begun, was not yet worn out. So 
measures were at once taken to secure a successor to the 
late Pastor. 

The seed planted in the founding of Harvard College in 
1636 had already begun to bear fruit. And the first man to 
whom the Hartford Church turned was Jonathan Mitchell, 
still a student there. Mr. Mitchell, however, was not 
destined to become pastor of the Hartford congregation, 
although promptly and earnestly invited. He speedily after 
settled in Cambridge, and died comparatively young, but 
leaving an illustrious name in New England history. 

Neither was Michael Wigglesworth so destined, nor John 
Davis his classmate, nor John Cotton, son of the famous 
Boston John, who for quite a protracted period lived at 
Hartford, studied divinity with Mr. Stone, and ministered to 
the congregation. 

Michael Wigglesworth's candidacy, at different times in 
1653 and 1654 (for such his diary shows it to have been) 



56 

may, however, be mentioned as probably affording the most 
distinctly recognizable provoking occasion of the series of 
events which give to the next few years of this Church's his- 
tory its chief and melancholy interest. This period, from 
about six years after Mr. Hooker's death to about four years 
before the death of Mr. Stone, or from 1654 to 1659 inclu- 
sive, is remembered mainly for a quarrel in the Hartford 
Church, of such virulence, contagiousness, and publicity, that 
it attracted the attention of all the churches in New England, 
and occupies a large place in every history of early ecclesi- 
astical affairs in this country. 

Into the perplexing and prolonged details of this contro- 
versy it would be utterly impossible to enter on this occasion 
with any minuteness, though I have elsewhere endeavored to 
follow it out in all ascertainable accuracy. It is a controversy 
which Cotton Mather and Dr. Benjamin Trumbull and Dr. 
Leonard Bacon have all spoken of as obscure, even to the 
point of being almost incomprehensible. But this conclusion 
of these eminent historians I am convinced was owing chiefly 
to two causes. First, a generous unwillingness on their part 
to recognize the largely personal element in the controversy, 
arising from the contact and conflict of the two very pro- 
nounced individualities of Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Stone ; and 
second and mainly, the absence from their knowledge of the 
contents of certain documents only comparatively recently 
discovered and published, which afford help in the solution of 
the trouble, of the very greatest assistance. 

It has been customary in the attempts which have been 
made to explain this unhappy passage in the Church's history, 
to ascribe a very large agency in it to the agitation of the ques- 
tions concerning Baptism, and the rights of children of bap- 
tized persons who were not communicants, — questions which 
began, certainly, to be mooted before this period, and which 
not long after this period came to open conflict, resulting in 
the rupture of this Church in 1670. But it may well be 
questioned whether the influence of this factor in the quar- 
rel in Stone's day has not been very much exaggerated, if 



57 

indeed it can be said to have perceptibly existed at all. Not 
one of the twenty-one contemporaneous documents, of various 
object and authorship, among the newly discovered manu- 
scripts published by the Connecticut Historical Society in 
1870, speaks of this matter of Baptism as in any way an 
issue in debate ; a fact utterly impossible to account for, not 
to say utterly impossible in itself, had the rights of church- 
membership based on Baptism been a recognized feature of 
the controversy. And even a careful reading of the historian 
Trumbull, who wrote in ignorance of these much-illuminating 
papers, will show that he conceived the agitation of the Bap- 
tism question to have been not of the substance of the quar- 
rel, but, as he says, a matter of " meanwhile," and for which 
certain parties " took this opportunity." 

Believing thus that any treatment of the quarrel which 
resulted in Elder Goodwin's party leaving Hartford for Had- 
ley, consistent with the documents in the case, must proceed 
substantially independent of that other discussion concerning 
baptismal rights which to some extent ran parallel with this, 
continued after it, and finally resulted in the separation of 
the Second Church of Hartford from the First, I shall here 
only indicate in the barest way what sorts of events they 
were which thus turmoiled the peace, not only of this Zion, 
but involved in it, all our New England Israel. 

All accounts agree that the quarrel commenced in an 
antagonism between Teaching Elder Stone and Ruling Elder 
Goodwin. There is a high degree of probability that its 
first recognizable point of outbreak, and perhaps its very 
occasion, was the refusal of Mr. Stone to allow the Church to 
vote on Mr. Michael Wigglesworth's " fitness for office in ye 
1 church of Hartford," thus infringing, as Mr. Goodwin claimed, 
on the " rights of the brotherhood." 

As the quarrel progressed it was attended by such inci- 
dents as these : the indignant resignation of his office by 
Mr. Stone, yet his after resumption of its functions as if 
he had not resigned ; the practical deposition of Mr. Good- 
win, the Ruling Elder, from his functions by the Church's 



58 

choice of a "moderator" to preside in its meetings; the 
withdrawal of Mr. Goodwin and his sympathizers from com- 
munion with the majority who adhered to Mr. Stone ; the 
commencement of processes of discipline by the Church 
against the withdrawing party for so doing ; the summons of 
an ecclesiastical council, composed of churches of this colony 
and of New Haven ; and then of another of churches of 
Massachusetts, their messengers traveling through the far 
wilderness, before whom each party pleaded its case ; pub- 
lic days of humiliation and prayer appointed by the Massa- 
chusetts churches in behalf of the Hartford Church and for 
the success of the council ; the interposition of the General 
Court with repeated well-meant and blundering endeavors at 
reconciliation ; the aggravation rather than the healing of 
the strife ; the final review of the whole matter and " Deter- 
mination " thereupon by a council at Boston, after a ten days' 
session, in September and October, 1659 ; the acceptance of 
the "sentence" by both parties, and the removal of Elder 
Goodwin and most of the minority party to Hadley, — these, 
in the rapidest and most meager outlines, were the main 
features of the first great quarrel in the Hartford Church. It 
began, probably, so far as anything visible was a beginning, 
in a question of personal preference for a pulpit candidate ; 
it found expression in a dispute touching the official preroga- 
tive of the two chief officers of the Church ; it broadened 
out as it went into a controversy concerning the claims of the 
brotherhood and the rights of a minority, and of the proper 
methods of securing ecclesiastical redress when those rights 
•were infringed. It brought up many interesting questions 
of Congregational order, but the personal element was all 
along the baffling and potential quantity. 

Mr. Goodwin was a very able and reverend man. But we 
remember that before the Church left Massachusetts he had 
been reproved in open court for his " unreverend speech." 
And it may be fairly questioned whether the very vigor and 
pertinacity with which he exercised what he regarded as the 
proper functions of his ruling eldership, was not one of the 



59 

most persuasive arguments with the Church for never appoint- 
ing another. Certainly another never was appointed. 

Mr. Stone, too, was an exceedingly reverend and able man. 
But he obviously took very high views of the prerogatives of 
his office. His conception of ministerial authority belonged 
more to the period in which he had been educated in Eng- 
land, than to the new era into which he had come in New 
England. His own graphic expression, " A speaking aristo- 
cracy in the face of a silent democracy," is the felicitous 
phrase which sets forth, at once, the view he took of church 
government, and the source of all his woes. On the whole, 
respecting the controversy itself which turmoiled the Church 
so long, the impartial verdict of history must be that, spite 
of many irregularities and doubtless a good deal of ill-temper 
on both sides, the general weight of right and justice was 
with the defeated and emigrating minority. 

Mr. Stone survived this passage in his experience about 
four years. They were years of apparent harmony in the 
Church and comfort to himself. He was a man of popular 
qualities and great conversational gifts, but he was also a 
man of the utmost sincerity and devout piety. The estima- 
tion in which he was held by his fellow-townsmen is shown 
in the very name our city bears ; the place of Mr. Stone's 
birth being chosen, rather than that of any other of its 
founders, as the name of the new home in the wilderness. 
He died July 20, 1663, at the same age as his more illustrious 
companion, Hooker — sixty -one years. And he sleeps beside 
him in the old cemetery. 

The year after the adjustment of the long quarrel, and 
three years before Mr. Stone's death, an associate minister 
was secured for him in the charge of this Church. 

Rev. John Whiting was ordained colleague with Mr. Stone, 
probably in 1660. He was the son of Mr. William Whiting, 
an early settler of the colony, and its treasurer. He was 
born in England, in 1635, but was educated at Harvard, 
graduating in 1653. He preached a while at Salem, Mass., 
but removed to Hartford to undertake the associate work of 
this Church of his childhood. 



6o 

During the three years of Mr. Stone's survival, after Mr. 
Whiting's coming, the new minister seems to have performed 
the largest part of the work ; but at Mr. Stone's death the 
people were still too full of the primitive idea of a dual minis- 
try to think of devolving the work on Mr. Whiting alone. 
Consequently, almost immediately upon the death of the old 
Teacher, Rev. Joseph Haynes was invited to an associate 
ministry with Rev. John Whiting. 

Mr. Haynes, like Mr. Whiting, was a Hartford man. He 
was the son of Governor John Haynes ; was born about 1641, 
and graduated at Harvard College in 1658. He began his 
joint ministry with Mr. Whiting some time in 1664. 

Here, then, were two young men — Whiting at his settle- 
ment was twenty-five, and Haynes at his settlement, four 
years later, was twenty-three — of common associations and 
mutual fellowships in town and college, united in the pastoral 
care of a Church which was the mother of them both. What 
fairer prospect could appear for a happy and prolonged asso- 
ciate ministry ? Nevertheless, two years after the settlement 
of the younger man, we find the two Pastors in open conflict, 
the Church divided into parties, an ecclesiastical warfare in 
lively progress, which in less than four years more resulted 
in the permanent rupture of the body known as the Church 
of Hartford into two separate religious organizations. 

A vivid picture of one scene of the drama in June, 1666, 
just when the sharper phase of the struggle was beginning, 
is preserved for us by the pen of Rev. John Davenport of 
New Haven. 

The curtain lifts on the spectacle of "yong Mr. Heynes" 
sending " 3 of his partie to tell Mr. Whiting that the next 
lecture-day he would preach about his way of baptizing, and 
would begin the practicing of it on that day." Lecture-day 
came. Mr. Haynes preached. " Water was prepared for 
Baptism," which Mr. Davenport says, " was never adminis- 
tered in a weeke day in that church before." But up stood 
the senior Pastor, Mr. Whiting, and, " as his place and duty 
required, testifyed against it and refused to consent." A 



6r 

wordy contest began. Rev. John Warham of Windsor, now 
an old man, and repentant of his seven years' practice of the 
way of baptizing which he now repudiated, was present, 
probably by request of the senior Pastor, Mr. Whiting. Pre- 
suming on the " common concernment to all the churches " 
of the matter in debate, he attempted to speak, but was 
" rudely hindered " by the exclamation, " What hath Mr. 
Warham to do to speake in our church matters." The meet- 
ing apparently broke up in disorder, but was followed by a 
challenge from the younger to the older Pastor for a public 
"dispute about it with Mr. Whiting the next Lecture day," — 
an ecclesiastical contest which probably came off according 
to programme, as Mr. Davenport says it was " agreed upon," 
but of which no account remains to us. 

This contest between Mr. Whiting and Mr. Haynes about 
baptism was only an incident in a general conflict of opinion 
and behavior in the New England churches at large, about 
this period. The subject can only be treated of on this 
occasion in the briefest manner. 

The original theory upon which the churches were gathered 
on this side of the Atlantic was the personal regenerate 
character of the membership. " Visible saints only are fit 
Matter appointed by God to make up a visible Church of 
Christ," was the language of Mr. Hooker, which may be 
said to express the generally accepted view of the primitive 
New England churches. But this view of the only proper 
constituency of the Christian Church, taken in connection 
with the very vigorous tests of personal experience which 
were deemed necessary to mark "visible saints," left a 
considerable number of people of good moral character, 
and some of real piety, outside any church fellowship, and 
destitute of a voice in the selection of a minister, whom 
nevertheless they were legally bound to support. And 
it left a growing body of young people in every com- 
munity who, having been baptized in infancy, were accounted 
in a manner church-members, but lacking the criteria of 
conscious regeneration, were deprived not only of an 



62 

invitation to the Lord's Supper, but of the privilege of 
presenting their children for baptism. The difficulty was a 
two-fold one, having reference to adult people never " con- 
federated" into the churches of New England, yet bound to 
support their ministers, and to the children of " confederating 
parents " who came to years of maturity and parenthood 
without the experiences which were regarded necessary to 
full participation in church privileges. 

Quite a number of the ministers of early New England 
foresaw trouble on this point and were disposed to take such 
a view of the church, and of the relationship of baptized 
persons to the church, as would meet at least that part of 
the difficulty which was experienced by parents who, having 
been themselves baptized but not admitted to the Lord's 
Supper, desired baptism for their children. So early as 1634 
the church of Boston, under the lead of John Cotton, 
advised the church of Dorchester that a grandfather might 
claim baptism for a grandchild, although the intermediate 
parents were not received into church covenant, — a posi- 
tion, however, which Mr. Hooker in his Survey distinctly 
repudiates. And it appears to be in evidence that the Ipswich 
church, in 1655, put on record a declaration that the children 
of adult parents " not scandalous " taking the covenant, should 
have their children baptized. The Dorchester church took 
similar action the same year. Salem, under the lead of Mr. 
Norris, debated and conceded the principle (though appar- 
ently delaying the practice) a year or two earlier still. 

Connecticut cannot therefore be charged with originating 
the new departure in enlarging the scope of baptism, although 
the earliest motion for an authoritative statement upon the 
subject did come from this colony. The matter was in the 
air. And the turmoiled condition of the Hartford Church, 
owing to the long quarrel between its officers, made this 
question all the more ready to arise. As Dr. Benjamin 
Trumbull says, " numbers of them took this opportunity to 
introduce into the Assembly a list of grievances on account 
of their being denied their just rights and privileges by the 



63 

ministers and churches." The ever ready General Court 
listened to the appeal. In February, 1656, it appointed Mr. 
Warham of Windsor, Mr. Stone of Hartford, Mr. Blinman 
of New London, and Mr. Russell of Wethersfield, delegates 
to a ministerial assembly called by Massachusetts at Boston 
to consider twenty-one questions concerning the matters in 
debate. The session of the ministers began June 4, 1657, 
and continued a fortnight. The answers they gave to Con- 
necticut's twenty-one questions were a substantia] endorse- 
ment of the claim to baptism and so to church-membership, 
of all children of baptized parents " not scandalous " who 
themselves " own the covenant." This virtually carried with 
it the conclusion of the right of all baptized persons to vote 
for the minister, and was so far an acceptance of the "parish 
way " of Old England against the church way of New Eng- 
land. The findings of the ministers were reported by Mr. 
Stone to the General Court in August, 1657, and by the 
Court commended to the consideration of the churches. Mr. 
Warham and the Windsor church began the practice of half- 
way covenant baptism the 31st of January following, but 
gave it up in March, 1665. 

Nevertheless the churches generally were slow to accept 
the change. The agitation however continued, and the 
Synod of 1662 was called in view of it. Neither Connecticut 
nor New Haven Colonies were represented in this Massachu- 
setts Synod of 1662, but it ratified by a vote of more than 
seven to one the principles set forth in the answer given to 
the tenth of the Connecticut Questions by the Ministerial 
Assembly of 1657 ; thus setting the endorsement of a Synod 
of the Churches to what is known as the Half- Way Cove- 
nant. 

Encouraged by this sanction and discouraged by the atti- 
tude of the Hartford Church and other churches in this 
Colony, an appeal to the General Court was made in October, 
1664, by Mr. William Pitkin (a very able, and, there is ample 
evidence, a sincere and godly man) and several others, which 
was in effect a claim that, having been baptized members of 



6 4 

the English National Church, they ought to be accounted on 
that basis and without further qualifications members of the 
local New England churches where they resided. The appeal 
met with sympathy. The Court responded with an intima- 
tion of readiness to order the churches so to practice " if 
they doe not practice without such order." It was in effect 
an explicit notice to the churches that the Government was 
in favor of the parish way, or, as it had begun to be called, 
the "Presbyterian way" of a State Church, rather than the 
way of Robinson and Hooker. 

It is at about this point that John Davenport lifts the 
curtain on the Thursday lecture-day scene I spoke of a few 
minutes ago. Up to this time, as Mr. Davenport declares, 
"the most of the churches in this jurisdiction" were strong 
on the old platform of a church consisting of " visible saints " 
only, and of baptism administered only to children of those 
in full communion. But the tide was against them, or against 
the principle on which they stood. For years the influence 
from over the water at home had been adverse. Presbyte- 
rianism had beaten Independency in England, and had suc- 
ceed to about all the " largeness " of Episcopacy, till itself 
had been superseded by a re-established Episcopal National 
Church. -♦ 

" Yong Mr. Heynes " and his party for Synodical authority, 
the " parish-way" and "large baptism " were obviously in the 
ascendency. Yet the minority could have no ecclesiastical 
relief. The law of March, 1658, forbidding all separate 
church assemblies (enacted to defeat Elder Goodwin's with- 
drawing party in the old quarrel with Mr. Stone) was still in 
force, and held Mr. Whiting and those who adhered to the 
anti-sy nodical, early-congregational way, in subjection to it. 
The Church and the colony were in a turmoil. The ever 
meddlesome General Court adopted several ineffectual expe- 
dients of redress, wearing out in the process two or three 
uneasy years. In May, 1669, however, apparently at last 
despairing of settling doctrinal questions by "orders" and 
"disputes," the Court passed a resolve giving permission to 



65 

all persons " approved according to law and sound in the 
fundamental^ of the Christian religion," to " have allowance 
of their perswasion and profession in church waves." The 
immediate effect of this action, though the Court had no 
sympathy with their views, was to open a way of escape from 
their embarrassment to Mr. Whiting and his minority party 
in the Hartford Church. On the 226. of February, 1670, he 
and thirty-one members of this Church with their families 
withdrew, and formed themselves by the advice of council 
into the Second Church of Hartford. The platform of 
principles they adopted is a striking and vigorous statement 
of original Congregationalism, in opposition to the synodical 
or Presbyterianizing tendency of the time. It was a noble 
and timely utterance. But it significantly illustrates how in 
the process of a controversy the watchwords and the stress 
of battle often change, that the new church which went off 
from the old as the representative of old Congregationalism 
began, on the very day of its organization, to practice half- 
way covenant baptism. The original question at issue had 
been the relation to the church of those who, having been 
baptized in infancy or in England, desired a voice in church 
action and a part in church privileges. It came, in the six 
years of struggle, to be a question of, relatively, almost a 
theoretic interest, concerning synodical authority and self- 
government. The tide on the baptism question was too 
strong for any party to resist. Its original opponents 
abandoned even the attempt. Mr. Whiting continued the 
honored pastor of the Second Church till his death in 1689. 
The separation into two societies involved of course an altera- 
tion on the way of defraying ecclesiastical expenses, all hav- 
ing previously been done by town vote. 

Left in charge of this Church Mr. Haynes remained its 
sole minister. Apparently the experience of the Church had 
satisfied it with the trial of the dual pastorate. It did not 
repeat the experiment for a hundred and ninety-two years. 

Committed to the half-way covenant principle, inclined 
to favor "large Congregationalism" and synodical super- 
9 



?66 

vision, the old Church swung with the ^general drift of 'the 
tide at that day. Mr. Haynes ministered to it till, at the 
still early age of thirty-eight years, he died May 24, 1679, 
having served the Church fifteen years; four in connection 
with Mr. Whiting, and eleven as sole Pastor. He was buried 
beside his father, the honored governor of the colony, and 
beside Hooker and Stone, the ministers of his boyhood and 
youth. 

Mr. Haynes was succeeded in the pastorate, some time 
late in 1679 or ear ly m 1680, by Isaac Foster. In the 
historical sermon preached by Dr. Hawes on June 26, 1836, 
two hundred years after the arrival of the Newtown Church 
on its present soil, the preacher says of Isaac Foster: "The 
late Dr. Strong remarks of him, that 'he was eminent for 
piety and died young.' " Dr. Hawes adds : " This is the only 
record that remains of him, and places him among the just 
whose memory is blessed." 

Fortunately the developments of time enable us to ascer- 
tain a little more fully the facts of Mr. Foster's story; though, 
as his pastorate was short and uneventful, they must be shut 
up here into the narrowest compass. Has was born, proba- 
bly in 1652, son of Captain William Foster of Charlestown, 
Mass. He graduated at Harvard College in 167 1, and in the 
autumn following was captured by the Turks while on a 
voyage with his father to Bilboa. Ransomed from captivity 
in 1673, he held a fellowship for some years at Harvard Col- 
lege, where his eminent gifts attracted toward him the notice 
of several churches. Overtures were made to him in behalf 
of the churches of Charlestown and of Barnstable, Massachu- 
setts. These, for one reason or another failing, he was, in 
January, 1679, sounded respecting a call to the pastorate of 
our neighboring church of Windsor. A curious corre- 
spondence remains between Rev. John Whiting of the 
Second Church here, and Increase Mather of Boston, the 
object of which on Mr. Whiting's part was to find out how 
Mr. Foster stood on the questions which had so recently 
divided the Hartford Church. The correspondence cannot 



6 7 

be quoted here, but it plainly appears that the art of finding 
out how a man stands on the main theological issues of his 
time has not made much progress since 1679. Mr. Foster 
had all the wise caution of a modern candidate for a pulpit in 
a pretty evenly divided community, yet on the whole leaned 
to the "large congregational" side. The church at Windsor, 
however, called him after hearing him preach, and did it 
with enthusiasm. The matter there, nevertheless, fell 
through. It fell through, moreover, in curious coincidence 
with the vacancy in the First Hartford Church, caused just 
at that time by the death of Mr. Haynes. It seems probable 
that the leaning of the Windsor church toward the stricter 
Congregational party, and especially Mr. Foster's candidature 
in a manner under the surveillance of Mr. Whiting and others 
representing that party, may not have been altogether accepta- 
ble to the undoubtedly " pious " but obviously politic young 
minister; so that as a fact the call to the, just then, stricter 
Congregational church of Windsor was negatived, and a call 
to the more "Presbyterially" inclined Church of Hartford 
was accepted ; and Mr. Whiting had him — instead of a neigh- 
bor six miles off — a townsman next door. Just when he 
was invited here, or when he came, cannot be told, all 
church records up to this period having vanished. But his 
ministry was short. He died August 21, 1682, in one of 
those epidemical sicknesses with which early Hartford seems 
to have been so often afflicted. 

Mr. Bradstreet of New London, records in his journal: 
"He was aged about thirty, a man of good Abilyties. His 
death has made such a breach yt it will not easily be made 
up." 

The young Pastor lies with his predecessors. The slab 
above him records at once his own burial place, and that of 
his successor ; a successor who not only took his office but 
married his widow, and so he vanished from among men. 

The successor who thus doubly came after Mr. Foster was 
Rev. Timothy Woodbridge. He was the son of Rev. 
John Woodbridge (himself son of a clergyman of the same 



68 

name), who was ordained pastor at Andover, Mass., October . 
24, 1645 ! DLl t returning to England became minister of 
Barford St. Martins in Wiltshire, where his son Timothy was 
baptized, January 1 3, 1656. Ejected from his parish, however, 
at the Episcopal restoration, he returned to America in 1663, 
and became an associate with his uncle, Thomas Parker, in 
the ministry at Newbury. Of young Timothy, who was seven 
years old on his father's return to America, nothing beyond 
his baptism is known till his graduation at Harvard College 
in 1675. Then follow eight years of considerable obscurity 
respecting him, till he appears at Hartford in 1683, supplying 
the pulpit "of the first church and congregation formerly 
under Mr. Isaac Foster's ministry." He was not, however, 
ordained in the ministry here till November 18, 1685. With 
Mr. Woodbridge the records of Church and Society first begin, 
all previous documents distinctly belonging to them having 
disappeared. 

The time at which Mr. Woodbridge entered on his ministry 
was a rather gloomy one. The demoralizing influence of the 
wars with the Indians where the Indians were hostile, and of 
intercourse with the Indians where they were friendly, was 
visible on every side. The operation of the half-way covenant 
was becoming manifest. The churches were becoming filled 
with people sufficiently religious to be church-members and 
impart church-membership to their children, but not religious 
enough to profess or to have any personal experiences of 
repentance or faith or to come to the Lord's Supper. Sins of 
drunkenness and licentiousness were astonishingly prevalent 
in a community only a few years previous marked by devoutest 
manners and sternest principles. It was in 1683, the first 
year of Mr. Woodbridge's preaching at Hartford, that Samuel 
Stone, the son of the honored former Teacher of this Church, 
and himself having been a " preacher some years with general 
acceptance," after a day spent " first at one and then at 
another taverne," fell into the Little river and was drowned. 
The general political disturbances which attended the death 
of the profligate King Charles; the accession of James II 



6 9 

the same year Mr. Woodbridge was installed Pastor; the 
arrival of Androsin Boston in 1686, and in Hartford in 1687; 
the excitement attending and following the hiding of the 
Charter; the English revolution and the accession of William 
and Mary, and declaration of war between England and 
France, were all unfavorable to the prevalence of order and 
piety in the town and in the colony. Meantime it is appar- 
ent from various sources that more than the usual severity of 
flood and storm and disease and scantiness of harvest, marked 
a protracted period of time, so that the twenty concluding 
years of the seventeenth century were among the darkest of 
New England history. 

In the midst of this prevalent depressed state of religion, 
it is in evidence that the ministers of this and other colonies 
made earnest efforts to stay the general tide. In response 
to the recommendations of the Reforming Synod of 1679, an ^ 
to recommendations of the General Court, and to deep convic- 
tions of their own, they labored, if not with fully illuminated, 
certainly with sincere endeavor to reform morals and increase 
godliness. Something we need not hesitate to call revivals 
of religion, however imperfect the standard of estimate, from 
time to time appear. Such an experience came to this Hart- 
ford Church in the winter and spring of 1695-6. 

It was at an hour of general alarm on account of Indian 
disturbances a little way up the river. The crops of the 
previous season had been cut off. The community was under 
unusual religious impression. The result is seen on the Church 
records. Between February 23, 1696, and April 5th of the 
same year, one hundred and ninety-four persons, an equal 
number of either sex, gave assent to the convenant. It is, 
however, a significant commentary on the imperfection, 
perhaps of the reviving itself, and certainly of the religious 
system under which it took place, that on Sunday following 
the last above mentioned, when those admitted to "full 
communion" as the fruits of this winter's awakening were 
received, there were but twelve. 

Six deacons appear to have been elected to office in Mr. 



7o 

Woodbridge' s pastorate, three in 1691, and three in 171 2. 
The election of the first three was apparently a matter of 
much deliberation. On March n, 1686, the names of five 
persons were " proposed to ye church and left to their 
consideration." But action was not taken till April 23, 1691, 
when "Paul Peck, Senr., Joseph Easton, and Joseph Olm- 
stead were chosen Deacons." No record of formalities about 
the choice of John Sheldon, John Shepard, and Thomas 
Richards remains. 

As early as 1694 the people on the east side of the Con- 
necticut River petitioned the Court to have the " liberty of a 
minister " among themselves. The request, acceded to by 
the Court, was rather grudgingly allowed by the Old Church 
on» condition that "all the land on the east that belongs to 
any of the people on the west side shall pay to the minis- 
try of the west side, and that all the land of the west side 
shall pay to the ministry of the west side, though it belongs 
to the people of the east side." Some controversy and 
trouble ensued. But time at last adjusted differences, and 
March 30, 1705, saw the ordination of Rev. Samuel Wood- 
bridge, a nephew of Timothy of the First Church, over the 
church of East Hartford. The date of the church organiza- 
tion, as a body ecclesiastically separate from the parent 
Church, it seems impossible exactly to determine. Less fric- 
tion appears to have attended the setting off of the West 
Hartford church and society, which events occurred with a 
good degree of amicableness in 171 3. 

Mr. Woodbridge was a man of large frame and strong 
constitution, but he appears to have been absent nearly two 
years from Hartford as an invalid in Boston between 1701 
and 1703. Several, and some of them rather pathetic 
endeavors " to condole with Mr. Woodbridg under the sor- 
rowful sircumstances," appear on the Society records. Mean- 
time the pulpit was supplied " att Thirty Shillings ye Sabath " 
by Ephraim Woodbridge, a nephew of the pastor, and by 
John Read and Nathaniel Hubbard, afterward distinguished 
lawyers in Massachusetts, who both appear to have tried 
preaching before settling down to law. 



7i 

There is ample evidence that Mr. Woodbridge occupied a 
prominent position as a minister in the colony. Concerning 
the two most considerable episodes of his life which illustrate 
this fact there cannot, however, on the present occasion be 
afforded space to go into any detail. Respecting the former 
of these passages of his history — his agency in the founding 
of Yale College and his controversy respecting its location, 
— only this can here be said : 

Mr. Woodbridge was one of the " ten principal ministers 
of the colony" nominated as "Trustees or Undertakers . . 
to found, erect, and govern a college." The old story of 
these men meeting in Branford in the year 1700, and laying 
a number of books upon the table, saying, " I give these 
books for the founding of a College Library in the Colony," 
is familiar to all. But Mr. Woodbridge, in sympathy with 
Mr. Buckingham of the Second Church, who became Trustee 
in 17 1 5, and in sympathy doubtless with most of the people 
in this northern part of the colony, wanted the permanent 
abode of the college, which had maintained hitherto a rather 
divided and peripatetic existence at Saybrook and Killing- 
worth, and Milford and Wethersfield, to be fixed at the last 
named, neighboring place. And perhaps the most dramatic 
incident of Mr. Woodbridge's whole history, may be found 
in that passage of it, when, having in various ways voted, 
remonstrated, and labored against the location of the college 
at New Haven, he presided at a rival commencement at 
Wethersfield, in defiance of the plain votes of the Trustees, 
and of the General Assembly, fixing the college at the former 
place. The occurrence is too pictorial not to claim expres- 
sion in President Clap's own statement of it. After describ- 
ing the " Splendid Commencement at New Haven," on Sep- 
tember 18, 1718; the dignity of the personages present, and 
the elegance of the "Latin Oration" with which "the Hon- 
orable Governor Saltonstall was pleased to Grace and Crown 
the whole Solemnity," he goes on to say that on the same 
day, " Something like a Commencement was carried on at 
Wethersfield before a large Number of Spectators ; five 



72 

Scholars who were originally of the Class which now took 
their Degrees at New Haven performed publick exercises ; 
the Rev. Mr. Woodbridge acted as Moderator, and he and 
Mr. Buckingham, and other Ministers present signed Certifi- 
cates that they judged them worthy of the Degree of Batch- 
elor of Arts ; these Mr. Woodbridge delivered to them in a 
formal Manner in the Meeting-House, which was commonly 
taken and represented as giving them their Degrees." The 
town of Hartford sympathized with its ministers in their 
rather excited and irregular proceedings, and elected Mr. 
Woodbridge and Mr. Buckingham the following year, repre- 
sentatives to the Assembly. Mr. Woodbridge prayed at the 
opening of the session on the 14th of May, but on the 18th 
his seat was challenged on account of his alleged charging 
the " Honorable the Governor and Council " in the college 
affair "with breach of the 6th and 8th commandments." 
The Lower House voted at first to exclude him from his 
seat, but subsequently acquitted him of blame. Just how 
the matter eventuated in the Upper House cannot be deter- 
mined. Mr. Woodbridge afterward became reconciled to 
the location of the college at New Haven, was Rector pro 
tempore at the Commencement in 1723, and a Trustee while 
he lived. 

Coincident in point of time with most of Mr. Woodbridge's 
earlier labors for the college, was his activity in originating 
and maintaining the Consociational System established by 
the adoption of the Saybrook platform in 1708. The move- 
ment for this system originated, naturally enough, with the 
trustees of the college, who were about the only ministers of 
the scattered churches of the colony to be brought by any 
public duties statedly together; but it was the result of pre- 
liminary discussion in the constituent county bodies, and of 
the consultation of their regularly elected delegates ; so that 
there seems no valid ground for the suggestion which has 
been made, that the body convened at Saybrook in Septem- 
ber, 1708, was not a perfectly fair and fully representative 
body of the forty churches of Connecticut. 



73 

Among the Hartford county delegates to this Synod was 
Timothy Woodbridge, Pastor of the First Church, and John 
Haynes, one of its members, son of its former Pastor. 

For the purposes of the present discourse it is unnecessary 
to express any judgment as to the merits of the Saybrook 
Ecclesiastical Constitution. The system, bad or good, con- 
tinued the legally recognized one in the State till 1784, and 
remained the voluntarily accepted method of the majority of 
the churches much longer. In this Church, whose Pastor 
and delegate had some hand in its devising, it continued 
operative one hundred and sixty-two years ; and its operation 
was such as to incline another eminent Pastor to say, at the 
one hundred and fiftieth anniversary meeting under the Say- 
brook Constitution, " the First Church of Hartford is a con- 
sociated church, and such I trust it will ever remain." 

The system thus set in working, Mr. Woodbridge energet- 
ically supported. Of the local county Association, organized 
under the system, he was generally moderator till his death. 
That event occurred, after a period of some months of disa- 
blement, on April 30, 1732, at the age of seventy-six years 
and six months; after his having served the Church in a min- 
isterial capacity forty-eight years and eight months ; having 
being for forty-six years and three months its ordained Pastor. 
Three hundred and sixteen persons were admitted to full 
communion, and four hundred and seventy-eight owned the 
covenant in Mr. Woodbridge's ministry. 

Mr. Woodbridge left two extant specimens of his pulpit 
powers, an Election Sermon preached May, 1724, and a Sing- 
ing Lecture preached at East Hartford in June, 1727. 

His own funeral eulogium was spoken in an election ser- 
mon, eleven days after his death, by his neighbor and friend, 
the aged Timothy Edwards of East Windsor, son of Richard 
Edwards of this Church, and concludes with the declaration, 
which there is, perhaps, no considerable occasion to modify, 
" that he was one of the choicest and greatest men that has 
ever appeared among us in these parts of the country." 

Two days after the death of Woodbridge, and on the even- 



74 

ing of his funeral, measures were taken by the Society of 
this Church " to treat with Mr. Daniel Wadsworth respecting 
his settling in the work of the ministry." Mr. Wadsworth 
had already sometime preached in the later weeks of Mr. 
Woodbridge's incapacity, and the result of overtures to him 
was that on the 28th of September, 1732, he was ordained 
as Pastor. The procedures on the occasion he has himself 
inscribed on the church record as follows : " The Rev. Mr. 
Whitman of Farmington, began with prayer, and preached 
a sermon from Matt, xxiv, 45. The Rev. Mr. Edwards of 
East Windsor made a prayer, and gave ye charge. The Rev. 
Mr. Marsh of Windsor made ye next prayer. The Rev. Mr. 
Colton of West Hartford gave the right hand of fellowship." 

The new pastor thus set in place in the twenty-eighth year 
of his age, was born at Farmington, November 14, 1704, and 
graduated at Yale College in 1726, in the same class with 
Elnathan Whitman (son of his old pastor at Farmington who 
preached at his ordination) who was soon to be his associate 
in the Hartford ministry as pastor of the Second Church. 

The occasion of the new ministry seems to have been laid 
hold of by the Society for the revival of the already much 
debated question of a new meeting-house. Into the long 
struggle over the location of this edifice and the story of its 
erection, it is unnecessary for me here to enter, the division 
of labor on this occasion assigning the whole matter to 
another hand. For the present it must suffice for me to say 
that the affair, wrangled over for years, was at last happily 
ended, and a new meeting-house, standing sidewise to the 
street, substantially on the spot where we now are, took the 
place of the old edifice in Meeting-House Yard, which had 
been used from near the planting of the settlement. 

The house was dedicated December 18, 1739; the sermon 
preached by the Pastor on the occasion from Haggai ii, 9, 
The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, 
saith the Lord of Hosts, being published, and affording us 
our only surviving specimen of Mr. Wadsworth's pulpit 
powers, which seem to have been of a respectable, though 
certainly not of a commanding order. 



75 

The institution of this pastorate brought also to an issue, 
in the slow, conservative way which had already become 
characteristic of the First Church, the very live question of 
that day, whether to sing " by ear " or " by rule." The ser- 
vice of song had been now for considerable period a matter 
of discord in many senses. Music for more than a genera- 
tion past (owing to the introduction of the Bay Psalm Book, 
having no musical notes, in the place of Ainsworth's or Stern- 
hold and Hopkins', which had the musical score) had become a 
matter of memory, and varying tradition. Direct instruction 
was wanting ; instrumental accompaniments disallowed ; so 
that singing came to the pass of utter poverty and confusion. 
Tunes called by the same name were scarcely recognized in 
places a few miles apart. Some congregations did not 
attempt more than three or four. 

The effort to amend matters about the first quarter of 
the eighteenth century met with violent opposition. Many 
congregations almost split on the question. The innovation 
was denounced as an insult to the memory of the fathers, 
and as tending to Papacy. "If we once begin to sing by 
note, the next thing will be to pray by rule, and then comes 
Popery." The interposition of the General Court was in 
some instances necessary to quiet disturbances arising from 
the proposal to sing " by rule." 

In this Hartford Church the matter took a characteristic 
course. The old Pastor, Mr. Woodbridge, wanted the reforma- 
tion and preached a Singing Lecture, as has been men- 
tioned, by request of the Association at East Hartford in 
June, 1727, in its behalf. He also, as Moderator of the 
General Association, put his signature to a paper read to that 
body on May 12th of the same year, by Rev. N. Chauncey 
of Durham, and published by its order, entitled " Regular 
Singing Defended and Proved to be the Only True Way of 
Singing the Songs of the Lord." 

But the old Pastor died without the sight of the change he 
advocated. 

With the coming of Mr. Wadsworth, however, enthusiasm 



7 6 

enough was enkindled to induce the Society on the 20th of 
June, 1733, to take this cautious and tentative action: 
" Voted and agreed, that after the expiration of three months, 
singing by Rule shall be admitted to be practiced in the con- 
gregation of this Society, and until their Annual Meeting in 
December next ; & that then a Vote be Taken whether the 
Society will further proceed in that way or otherwise." The 
two leaders of the opposing methods were then designated 
" to take on them the care of setting the Psalm " for the 
periods specified ; " Mr. William Goodwin as usuall," and 
" Mr. Joseph Gilbert, jr., after the Expiration of the three 
months." Tried thus prudently for four months, the Society 
saw its way in December to vote " that singing by Rule be 
admitted and practiced in the congregation of this Society," 
and Mr. Gilbert was empowered " to sett the psalm." 

The favorable issue of the singing controversy, and 
especially of the meeting-house struggle, must have been 
very welcome to Mr. Wadsworth and the more spiritual por- 
tion of his people. These years of controversy were natu- 
rally years of barrenness. Meantime while Hartford Church 
was quarreling over its location only so far away as Windsor 
a remarkable revival had taken place under the ministry of 
Rev. Jonathan Marsh. The year 1735, just in the thick of 
the meeting-house conflict, was the year of the great revival 
under Jonathan Edwards at Northampton. It was, however, 
the year 1740, just after the entrance on the new house of 
worship, which is commonly taken as the commencement of 
that religious movement in New England known as the 
Great Awakening. It was this year that George White- 
field made his first preaching tour through New England. 
The religious condition of the community was eminently 
favorable for Mr. Whitefield's success. His youth, his elo- 
quence, his peculiar position as an Episcopal minister in full 
sympathy with the distinctive doctrines of the Puritans, 
attracted universal attention and good will. No such general 
prostration of a community before one man, and he only 
a young gospel preacher, was ever known before, and none 



77 

has been known since. He left Northampton Sunday even- 
ing, October 19th, accompanied by Jonathan Edwards as 
far as the house of Jonathan's father, Rev. Timothy, at 
EastWindsor, preaching at Westfield and Springfield and 
Sufneld on the way. On the afternoon of October 21st 
he preached at East Windsor, and there Jonathan Edwards 
gently remonstrated with him about his denouncing the 
ministers; his practice of "judging other persons to be 
unconverted ; " and the large place he accorded to "visions" 
and other similar results of religious excitement. Next day, 
Monday, October 22d, he was here at Hartford, preaching in 
the new meeting-house, doubtless, to an audience which he 
describes in his customary exaggerated way, as " many 
thousands." Thence by Wethersfield, Middletown, and 
Wallingford, he went preaching to New Haven and so to 
New York. Some measure of benefit seems to have accom- 
panied or followed Mr. Whitefield's transit through Hartford. 
The records of this Church show an accession of twenty-five 
to its "full communion" membership, and of eleven to its 
" Covenant " in the twelve months succeeding. The records 
of the Second Church at this date are lost. The church in 
West Hartford gained forty-five, but whether all to its "com- 
munion " I am unable to say. 

These certainly do not seem large results for the great 
year of the Great Awakening. And large or small, they 
were attended and followed by some features which made all 
the ministers of Hartford, and most of the Hartford local 
Association, unite on February 5, 1745, over their individ- 
ual signatures, in a public printed " Testimony against Mr. 
Whitefield and his conduct," and a solemn " warning and 
caution " to their people not to hear him on his proposed 
second transit through New England. This declaration was 
followed by another of a like character, five months later, 
issued by the General Association over the hand of Benjamin 
Cokon of West Hartford, Moderator, and Elnathan Whitman 
of the Second Church, Scribe. 

Why was this ? And why was the very awakening which 



78 

in its general result so blessed Connecticut, and blesses it to 
this day, the occasion for a sharp conflict of feeling and 
judgment among the ministers and the churches ? The 
reason is not far to seek. Dr. Leonard Bacon acutely 
remarked, "the Whitefield of history is not exactly the 
Whitefield of popular tradition." It is so. The real White- 
field of the pilgrimage of 1740 was a young man of twenty- 
five, of burning eloquence and impassioned piety, but censo- 
rious, denunciative, and lending all the weight of his 
tremendous popular influence to the encouragement of 
fanatic extravagances of experience and expression in his 
converts and followers. Whosoever hesitated at any of his 
measures was pronounced unconverted and carnal. In spite 
of the wise and loving caution of Jonathan Edwards at East 
Windsor he preached, three days after, at New Haven — and 
of all congregations to a congregation of students — on the 
"dreadful ill consequences of an unconverted ministry." 

But all of Mr. Whitefield's own extravagances of speech 
might have been forgotten had it not been for the actions of 
his followers. Many of these, ordained ministers, either 
having no proper charge or forsaking it, went through the 
colony at their own will, encouraging discontent with the 
settled ministry, and promulgating crude and erroneous tests 
of piety and the means of attaining it. A numerous crop 
of lay exhorters rose in the churches, professing infallible 
ability to discern spirits, especially the spirits of ministers, 
and passing sudden and damnatory judgment on all who dif- 
fered from them. 

These excesses became so great as to attract in some 
instances the attention of the civil authorities. One con- 
spicuous case of this kind, which cannot be detailed at any 
length, is here adverted to only because of a certain dramatic 
connection with the church edifice of this Society. Rev. 
James Davenport of Southold, L. I., was one of the most 
accepted favorites and followers of Whitefield, who pronounced 
him " nearest to God " of any man he had known. He was 
a man of a wild sort of eloquence, and wherever he went 



79 

created great excitement. Arrested on a warrant from the 
General Court, together with Rev. Benjamin Pomroy, on a 
charge of inflaming the congregations he addressed, largely 
of children and youth, with doctrines subversive of all law 
and order, he was brought before the Assembly at Hartford 
on June I, 1742, about eighteen months after Mr. White- 
field's transit through the place. His trial took place in the 
meeting-house of this Society, and lasted two days. The 
town was in a state of excitement bordering on tumult. The 
partisans on either side rushed together to support or to over- 
bar the sheriff. Again and again it seemed as if the prisoners 
would be rescued from his custody. The night between the 
two days was little short of a riot. In the morning the mili- 
tia were ordered out to suppress disorder. The Assembly 
adjudged Mr. Davenport to be "disturbed in the rational 
faculties of his mind," and thus less responsible than he 
otherwise might be, and directed that he be sent out of the 
colony. And so, about four o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. 
Davenport was marched " between two files of musketiers " 
from the meeting-house down to Connecticut river, and put 
aboard a boat for his home. 

All these things show the intensity of feeling connected 
with the Great Awakening period, and the reasons, to some 
extent, which made the Hartford ministers, and a large por- 
tion of the ministers of Connecticut generally, disfavor a 
second Whitefieldian pilgrimage. But for so doing they 
were stigmatized as Old Lights, Formalists, Arminians, indi- 
cators of " mere heathen morality," and careless of the souls 
of men. Some of Mr. Whitman's hearers deserted his con- 
gregation in favor of more spiritual instruction. There was 
really no just ground for such accusation. The charges were 
easy to make. They are in substance made in almost any 
revival period when any one dissents from the counsels of 
the most fervid promoters of any of its methods. They have 
in effect been made in very recent days. 

Possibly a larger share of benefit might have come to this 
community had this Church and its immediate neighbors 



8o 

thrown themselves more into the line with Wheelock and 
Pomeroy, and Bellamy, and even somewhat more generously 
tolerated Davenport. Possibly also, not. Anyway this com- 
munity was spared the ecclesiastical scandals which separated 
churches and dishonored religion in some parts of the State 
where freer scope was given to the new measures of the new 
men. 

But right or wrong, Mr. Wadsworth's part in influencing 
religious affairs was soon afterward ended. He died Novem- 
ber 12, 1747, lacking two days of forty-three years of age; 
having filled a pastoral term of fifteen years and two months. 
He sleeps with his ministerial forerunners in the old grave 
yard. 

Ninety-nine persons were admitted to "full communion," 
and seventy-four to " covenant " during his ministry. 

Rev. Edward Dorr succeeded to the pastorate April 27, 
1748, after having preached a considerable period during Mr. 
Wadsworth's disability. Mr. Dorr was born at Lyme, Novem- 
ber 2, 1722. He united with the church in Lyme, June 7, 
1 741, under the ministry of Rev. Jonathan Parsons, one of 
the most useful and able of Connecticut's ministers in the 
era of the Great Awakening. He graduated at Yale Col- 
lege in the class of 1742, and was licensed to preach by the 
New Haven Association, May 29, 1744. Before coming to 
Hartford he preached more than two years at Kensington, 
in the midst of a church and society controversy, unnecessary 
here to relate. The elaborate and repeatedly modified mon- 
etary negotiations recorded on the books of our Society prior 
to his settlement, significantly indicate the unsettled condi- 
tion of financial affairs at the period, consequent largely on the 
colonial indebtedness in the repeated wars with the Indians 
and the French. Mr. Dorr followed the example of his pre- 
decessor by recording on the Church book the procedure at 
his ordination. "The Rev'd Mr. Bissell [of Wintonbury] 
began with prayer, ye Rev'd Mr. Whitman [of Second Church] 
preach'd a Sermon from 2 Cor. 4, 5. The Rev'd Mr. Col- 
ton [of West Hartford] made the first prayer. Mr. Whit- 



man of Farmington gave the Charge. Mr. Steel [of Tol- 
land] made the second prayer, and Mr. Whitman of Hartford 
gave the right hand of Fellowship. Give me grace, O God, 
to be a faithful, and make me a successful minister of the 
Gospel of Christ. E. Dorr." 

The period of Mr. Dorr's ministry was one of great relig- 
ious declension, which lasted with slight and local interrup- 
tions throughout New England considerably beyond the 
period of his pastorate. 

The controversies of the preceding years, growing to some 
extent out of the Whitefieldian movement ; the separations 
which took place in many Connecticut churches ; the restive- 
ness of some under the Saybrook platform, and the resolu- 
tion of others in the administration of the discipline estab- 
lished by that platform ; the corrupting effects of the Indian 
and French wars, and the absence, however accounted for, of 
those divine influences which seem at times to triumph over 
all obstacles, — all combined to make this period of the coun- 
try's history one of general monotony and discouragement. 
In the midst of this comparatively depressed state of affairs, 
Mr. Dorr exercised a faithful and laborious ministry. One 
hundred and sixty-one persons " owned the covenant," and 
fifty-three were admitted to full communion, during the 
twenty-four and a half years of his pastorate. The compari- 
son of these numbers with the seventy-four who owned the 
covenant and the ninety-nine who were admitted to full com- 
munion in the fifteen years of Mr. Wadsworth's ministry, is 
significant. Especially significant is the striking alteration 
of proportion between those covenanting and those commun- 
ing. It is plain that a larger and larger number of people 
were contenting themselves with such a merely formal assent 
to the gospel as carried with it the privileges of a qualified 
church-membership, but implied no spiritual change. 

Amid this general state of public anxiety and of religious de- 
pression, a few items of local interest may be gathered up. In 
1755 it was thought necessary to enlarge the meeting-house, 
and a committee was appointed for the purpose, but the mat- 



82 

ter seemed to go no further. The need could not have been 
great. All the inhabitants in Hartford at this time, includ- 
ing East and West Hartford, were less than thirty-five hund- 
red, and there were four meeting-houses. In 1756 the 
Society appointed a committee to inform Mr. Dorr that " this 
Society are desirous that Dr. Watts' Psalms may be sung in 
the congregation at the time of divine worship at least half 
ye time." A good deal of trouble all along these days seems 
to have attended the always vexatious business of " seating " 
the people. In the year 1760 the Society took a new course, 
and " voted and agreed that the inhabitants of this society 
for the future, and until this society shall order otherwise, 
have liberty to accommodate themselves with seats in the 
meeting-house at their discretion, any measures this society 
hath heretofore taken for seating sd house notwithstanding." 
This democratic plan did not long suit, however, for four 
years later the Society voted to " new seat the meeting-house 
in the common and usual way and manner." 

Mr. Dorr's period of ministry witnessed also the first 
endeavor to plant an Episcopal church in Hartford, by the 
preaching of Rev. Thomas Davies in 1762. The events 
connected with that endeavor have recently been narrated in 
Mr. C. J. Hoadly's lately published and admirable sketch of 
the history of Christ Church. They probably attracted the 
attention of Rev. Mr. Dorr somewhat more warmly because 
the " Sam. Talcott," who seemed to be the most troublesome 
Sanballat of the new movement, was a " covenant " member 
of the First Church, and Mr. Dorr's brother-in-law. Mr. 
Dorr's own attitude on the question of Episcopal separatism, 
as well as separatism of other kinds, is quite discernible to 
one who can at all read, between the lines in his election 
sermon preached in 1765, in which he said : " I readily own 
that every establishment of a religious kind should be upon 
the most generous and catholic principles, and that no man 
or set of men should be excluded from it for mere specula- 
tive and immaterial points ; for different modes and cere- 
monies Suffer me to query with your Honors, whether 





% 



33 

the laws in this Colony made for the support of religion dont 
need some very material amendment ? And if they be suffi- 
cient, whether the construction put upon them in many of our 
executive courts hath not a direct and natural tendency to 
undermine and sap the foundations of our ecclesiastical con- 
stitution ? 

But if Mr. Dorr was not in advance of his time on the 
question of toleration of dissenters, this same election ser- 
mon shows him in a most amiable and admirable attitude on 
the question of the treatment of the Indians, which he dis- 
cusses in another part of it. His views on this latter sub- 
ject, too extended to quote here, are as well worthy of con- 
sideration by our national government to-day, as they were 
by the colonial government of 1765. 

Mr. Dorr's lot was cast in a dull time of our ecclesiastical 
history ; he was cut off from life in the prime of his strength, 
and without posterity ; but .the tokens that survive of him 
give him not only a fair but an honorable place in the ministry 
of this Church. He died, after many months of paralytic 
disability, Oct. 20, 1772, in the fiftieth year of his age. Rev. 
Samuel Whitman of the Second Church preached a funeral 
discourse, still extant. He was buried beside his prede- 
cessors. 

After the death of Mr. Dorr the Society of this Church, in 
December of the same year, made unsuccessful overtures to 
" Mr. Joseph How " ; doubtless the Joseph Howe who was 
just finishing his tutorship at Yale College, who became 
pastor of the New South Church in Boston, and who died 
in 1775. 

The next attempt was more successful, and resulted in the 
introduction to this Church's service of one of the most 
illustrious of its ministers. 

" Mr. Nathan Strong of Coventry," was invited by the 
Society to the ministry of this congregation, June 4, 1773, 
and was ordained to the pastorate on the 5th of January, 
1774; the sermon on the occasion being preached by Rev. 
Nathan Strong, his father, from 2 Tim. iv, 4: "But watch 



8 4 

thou in all things ; endure afflictions ; do the work of an 
evangelist; make full proof of thy ministry" The sermon 
was published, and gives token that the religious influence 
which had been brought to bear on the boyhood and youth 
of the young minister, under his father's instruction, must 
have been of a robustly vigorous kind. The Pastor thus set 
in office in this Church was twenty-five years of age, having 
been born Oct. 16, 1748. He graduated at Yale College in 
the class of 1769, having among his associates Timothy 
Dwight, the future president of the college, and receiving at 
his graduation the first honor of the occasion. Mr. Strong 
was accustomed to refer the period of his personal spiritual 
renewal to his early life, but he seems not at first, after 
graduating, to have contemplated the ministry as a profession, 
but turned his attention to law. In 1772 and 1773 he was 
tutor in Yale College ; during which time he devoted himself 
to theology, and received overtures to the pastorate from 
several churches. President Stiles is said to have told the 
committee of the Hartford Church, when applied to respect- 
ing the tutor's fitness for the place, that " he was the most 
universal scholar he ever knew." 

The period of the institution of the hew pastorate was a 
trying one. The colonial relationships to Great Britain were 
just on the point of rupture, and the feeble confederacies on 
this side of the Atlantic were about entering on a protracted 
and exhausting war with that then recognizedly chief 
belligerent power in the world. Divisions of sentiment 
respecting, not only the details of the struggle, but the main 
aim and method of it, divided to some extent every com- 
munity, and very distinctly that of Connecticut. 

At the same time the condition of the churches, spiritually 
considered, was very low. The half-way-covenant sowing 
was producing its natural harvest. There were only fifteen 
male members in full communion in this Church when Mr. 
Strong was set in pastoral charge. As the public conflict 
progressed, a tide of infidelity set in under the sympathetic 
influence of French associations in the war for Independence, 



85 

and religion became, to an extent unknown before or since 
in this land, a matter for gibe and contempt. 

In. this condition of affairs Mr. Strong threw himself with 
great energy into the conflict for American liberty. He 
served some time as chaplain to the troops. He wrote and 
preached in support of the patriotic cause. Especially in 
the later political discussions connected with the establish- 
ment of the Federal constitution he published a series of 
about twenty articles intended to harmonize public opinion 
in the ratification of that instrument. It was not probably 
at all on account of his ardent advocacy of this cause, but it 
was certainly appropriately harmonious with it, that the con- 
vention which ratified the Constitution of the United States, 
on the part of Connecticut, was held in the meeting-house of 
this Society in 1788. 

Meantime the earlier period of Mr. Strong's ministry can- 
not be said to have been marked by tokens of spiritual vigor. 
Perhaps this was, in the nature of events, impossible. It 
may be, however, that Mr. Strong was lacking in some of 
those deeper convictions which distinguished and made so 
powerful his later ministry. It serves perhaps to corrobo- 
rate this impression, to know that in a considerable part of 
this portion of his life, Mr. Strong was engaged extensively 
in the distillery business, with his brother-in-law, Mr. Reuben 
Smith. The records of Hartford land-transfers show some 
twenty deeds of real estate involving thirty or forty thousand 
dollars worth of property, bought and sold by the partnership 
of "Reuben Smith & Co.," (Nathan Strong's name how- 
ever generally taking the priority in the deeds made to or 
by the partners) between 1790 and 1796, together with 
their vats, stills, and cooper shops, in the prosecution of this 
enterprise. The venture was ultimately unfortunate from a 
pecuniary point of view, and in October, 1798, writs of 
attachment were levied against the property, and, in default of 
that, against the bodies of Messrs. Strong and Smith, on a 
judgment against them. Mr. Smith prudently took himself 
to New York. Mr. Strong remained in the house he had 



86 

built (the house just south of the Athenaeum), which was 
attached under the sheriff's warrant. It is said that the 
sheriff proposed to take Mr. Strong to jail, but relented 
when told that he " would go with him if compelled, but if 
he went he would never enter the pulpit again." 

Whether the business distress which began to press upon 
Mr. Strong several years before this culminating incident of 
his disaster, had any causal connection with an altered tone 
in his ministry and a revived condition of things in his 
Church, it is perhaps presumptuous to assert. But certain 
it is that the year 1794, at which time the distillery business 
had broken down and the sale of effects appertaining to it 
had begun, witnessed the first indication of the spiritual 
awakening of his flock. One token of this quickened 
religious interest remains in a vote of the Society, Dec. 16, 
1794, "to light the meeting-house for evening lectures"; 
this being probably the first time religious meetings were 
ever held in any public building belonging to this Society in 
the evening. This earliest period of awakening was followed 
in 1798 and 1799 by a prolonged and powerful revival, which 
wrought a great change in the religious condition of the con- 
gregation. During its progress Mr. -Strong published a 
volume of sermons of a character eminently fitted to awaken 
and promote a quickening of evangelic piety. This volume 
was followed by another in 1800, dealing with aspects of 
religious truth suited to confirm and strengthen those who 
had been brought under impression. These sermons, together 
with Mr. Strong's treatise on the Compatibility of Eternal 
Misery with Infinite Benevolence, in reply to a volume — found 
after his decease among his writings — of Rev. Dr. Huntington 
of Coventry, show great acuteness of thought, and an unusual 
vivacity and vigor of utterance. Unlike a great proportion 
of the sermons of that time, they are readable and might 
even be effectively preached to-day. They were perhaps the 
occasion of the conferring on him the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity by the College of New Jersey in 1801. 

No man more than Dr. Strong contributed to the revival 



87 

of earnest piety which marked so extensively the close of 
the last century and the beginning of the present in this 
State. In 1808, and again shortly before his death, from 
1813 to 1 8 1 5, powerful awakenings in his congregation bore 
witness to the efficacy of the truth so cogently and persua- 
sively preached by him. Eighty-eight persons united with 
the Church in 1808, the year after entering on the new 
meeting-house ; and one hundred and twenty-eight joined as 
the result of the revival of 181 3-14. Jt is greatly to be 
regretted that the perishing, or, more probably, the non- 
creation of any Church records (except a few memoranda by 
Mr. Barzillai Hudson, long a member of the Prudential Com- 
mittee) during the entire period of Dr. Strong's ministry, 
makes it impossible to trace precisely who they were, or in 
what numbers, who united with the Church at any epoch of 
this pastorate previous to 1808. Especially to be regretted 
is it, that it is impossible accurately to discover the working 
of the revival spirit upon the half-way-covenant system in 
this Church which had practiced it so long. It is doubtful 
if that system was ever distinctly abrogated in Dr. Strong's 
day. The late Thomas S. Williams and wife both owned 
the covenant, it is believed in his time, and only made such 
a profession as brought them into the Church's full com- 
munion in 1834, in the days of his successor. 

In 1799 Dr. Strong published, in connection with Rev. 
Joseph Seward, a deacon of this Church, and Rev. Abel 
Flint, pastor of the Second Church, the volume known as the 
" Hartford Selection of Hymns," which attained a wide cir- 
culation among the churches, and which contained some 
metrical compositions of his own. These have been praised, 
but it can hardly have been for their poetry. 

Not the least of Dr. Strong's services to this Church and 
to the churches generally, was his labor in behalf of Mis- 
sions. It was largely his interest in the Connecticut Mis- 
sionary Society, formed in 1798 for the purpose of sending 
missionaries to the North and West, and of which society he 
was one of the original founders, that induced him to project 



88 

and in part to edit, and for a time largely to write, the 
Connecticut Evangelical Magazine. This monthly periodical 
was continued for fifteen years. The number of copies dur- 
ing the first five years averaged 3,730 annually. The net 
profits were paid over to the Connecticut Missionary Society, 
which received from this source $11,620. 

The year 1807, December 3d, saw the entrance of this 
Society into this house of worship where we are now gathered, 
and which was generally regarded at that day, and as such 
described by Dr. Dwight in his Travels, as a masterpiece of 
ecclesiastical architecture. Stoves were first introduced into 
this edifice the year before Dr. Strong died, 18 15. The 
pulpit, the height of which it is said was first determined by 
Dr. Strong, was lowered two feet in 18 16, the year he died, 
and has (incredible as it may seem) been lowered three times 
since. 

In 1802, moved by the renewed sense of religious things 
in the community, the Society raised a fund of $4,709 by 
subscription, to be put on interest till it amounted to $7,000, 
then forever afterwards to be "kept entire" for the "sup- 
port of the ministry in the society." The names of the sub- 
scribers are entered in a roll of honor on the Society records. 
This fund met with the not unusual fate of such funds when 
the donors are dead and a society gets short of money, as we 
shall presently have occasion to see. 

This Bible, presented to the Church by Mr. Rueben Smith, 
Dr. Strong's partner in the unfortunate distillery business, 
and in memory of Deacon Solomon Smith, Dr. Strong's 
falher-in-law, has been in use since 18 12. 

In 1 8 14, the Church entered on the use of its first confer- 
ence room, a brick edifice erected on a lot of ground, thirty 
by fifty feet in dimension, on Theater, now Temple street. 

Even this hasty sketch of Dr. Strong's ministry would be 
culpable did it not refer to his vast power of social influence 
and his unsurpassed vivacity and wit. The sharpness of his 
repartee often stood him in better stead than arguments. 
Many of his sallies and rejoinders are familiar to this day to 
people of this community. 



8 9 

Dr. Strong had his full share of trouble. Beside those of 
a financial kind, of which mention has been made, he was 
called on to bury two wives and a son (the survivor of his 
second wife Anna McCurdy), who, having just graduated at 
Yale College, was drowned at the East Hartford ferry. Dr. 
Strong lived a widower the last twenty-six years of his life. 

Negotiations for the settlement of a colleague were in har- 
monious progress between the Pastor and the Society when 
death intervened. Dr. Strong died December 25, 18 16, in the 
sixty-ninth year of his age, and the forty-third of his min- 
istry. He was the first of this Church's Pastors to be buried 
elsewhere than in the old ground behind the church. His 
mortal part lies in the North Cemetery. His face and 
figure still survive in the living memory of a few among us, 
and his name must ever be honored in the annals of this 
place. 

The names of George Burgess, Heman Humphrey, and 
especially Eleazer T. Fitch, bring us to what seem modern 
times. All preached here during the months following Dr. 
Strong's decease, but to none was extended a formal call. 

Sunday, the 28th of September, 1817, saw in the pulpit of 
this Church, for the first time, a tall, awkward man of a little 
over twenty-seven years of age, who was destined to fill the 
second longest term of pastoral service in the two hundred and 
fifty years of its history hitherto. A member of this Church, 
now deceased, who well knew Dr. Strong, narrated to me his 
vivid impressions of that Sabbath and the sharp contrast he 
felt between the courtly and dignified bearing of the pastor 
of his youth, and the ungainly, impulsive, red-bandannad 
occupant of his place. But he truthfully added the reproof 
administered to him by a pious old aunt to whom he ventured 
to suggest some of his feelings : " Remember my words, that 
is to be a very remarkable man." 

Joel Hawes, one of this Church's and Connecticut's most 
eminently useful ministers, was born at Medway, Massachu- 
setts, December 22, 1789. His youth was passed amid asso- 
ciations not very congenial to scholarly tastes or even favora- 



9 o 

ble to mental improvement. It was at about eighteen years 
of age, and while engaged in serving a period in a cloth- 
dressing establishment that he experienced his first strong 
spiritual impressions, almost for the first time read the Bible, 
and became experimentally a Christian. He made confes- 
sion of his faith by uniting with the church in Medway, the 
first Sunday in May, 1808, being at that time also baptized. 
Studying a while in private, under the tuition of Rev. Dr. 
Crane of Northbridge, he entered Brown University in Sep- 
tember, 1809. He worked his way through college, teaching 
school in winter, but by indefatigable industry and labor 
graduated September 1, 18 13, second in rank in his class. 
He entered Andover Seminary in 18 13 ; dropped out a year 
to teach in Phillips Academy, and graduated September, 

1 817. He had been licensed to preach by the Essex Middle 
Association on May 13th previous, and followed his licensure 
by preaching several Sabbaths for Rev. Dr. Dana of New- 
buryport. Measures looking to his call to the pastorate in 
connection with Dr. Dana were in progress when he was 
invited to preach at this First Church in Hartford. He 
came here on the Saturday following his graduation, and 
preached his first sermon here on the succeeding Sunday. 
After trial of his gifts for ten Sabbaths, a call was extended 
to him by the Church and Society, and on the 4th of March, 

18 1 8, he was ordained Pastor, being the tenth in the minis- 
terial succession of the pastoral line. In the public service 
of the ordination Prof. Fitch of Yale College offered the 
Introductory Prayer; Dr. Woods preached the Sermon, which 
was afterwards published, from Heb. xiii, 17; Dr. Nathan 
Perkins of West Hartford, offered the Ordaining Prayer ; 
Mr. Rowland of Windsor, gave the Charge ; Dr. Abel Flint 
of the Second Church extended the Right Hand of Fellow- 
ship, and Rev. Samuel Goodrich of Berlin, made the conclud- 
ing prayer. 

With the induction of Mr. Hawes into the pastorate, a 
period is reached where the thronging memories of some 
present, and of more and more in its later portions, will out- 







*>&& 



O^u^c^/ 



9i 

run and outnumber any utterances of the speaker. All the 
more needful, therefore, will it be for him to confine himself 
to the main facts of the Church life, with small references as 
possible to personal biography. 

Dr. Strong had certainly been a very able and in most of 
his ministry a very devout and useful minister; but many 
things in Church and Society affairs were left by him at 
strangely loose ends. 

Dr. Hawes writes in the first year of the new pastorate : 
" Our Jerusalem is all in ruins. . . . No church records ; no 
accounts to tell me who are members and who not ; what 
children have been baptized and what not ; . . . many irreg- 
ular members, some timid ones, and I fear but few who would 
favor a thorough reformation." The new Pastor threw himself 
into his work with energy and success. Records began to be 
kept in the Church, unkept or most imperfectly kept for 
forty-five years. A Prudential Committee, the first in the 
church's history, was appointed in 1821, to "aid the Pastor 
in promoting the peace and welfare of the Church, and in the 
maintenance of gospel discipline," which last portion of their 
functions there is ample evidence they entered on with vigor. 

The same year the new pastorate was established, marks the 
beginning of Sunday-school work in Hartford. The " Sunday- 
School Society" was organized on the 5th of May, 18 18, 
Rev. Abel Flint of the Second Church being President, and 
Mr. Hawes one of the directors. Four schools were formed 
with special reference to the four then existing religious 
societies in the place, — the First and Second Congregational, 
Christ Church, and the First Baptist, — but all under the 
patronage of the Union Society. This arrangement con- 
tinued, however, only about two years, when each society 
took the management of the Sunday-school work into its own 
hands. 

With another action, to which the Church was persuaded 
about this time, we may or may not perhaps as fully sympa- 
thize. The new Pastor had just come from Andover, where 
the battle lines of the Unitarian controversy were set in 



9 2 

sharply hostile array. And he stigmatized the covenant of 
the Church here as " a covenant and confession of faith con- 
tained in just ten Arminian lines." That covenant, which, 
with slight verbal change, had been in use in this Church cer- 
tainly more than a century and a quarter, and perhaps from 
the beginning, reads as follows : 

"You do now solemnly, in the presence of God and of 
these witnesses, receive God in Christ to be your God, one 
God in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the. Holy 
Ghost. You believe the Scriptures to be the word of God, 
and promise by divine grace to make them the rule of your 
life and conversation. You own yourself to be by nature a 
child of wrath, and declare that your only hope of mercy is 
through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, whom 
you now publicly profess to take for your Prophet, Priest, and 
King ; and you now give up yourself to Him to be ruled, 
governed, and eternally saved. You promise by divine grace 
regularly to attend all the ordinances of the Gospel (as God 
may give you light and opportunity), and to submit to the 
rule of the government of Christ in this church." 

Just where the " Arminianism " comes into this old for- 
mula, to which so many generations had given assent in the 
most solemn transaction of their lives, it is hard to tell. But 
the Church yielded to the Pastor's desire, and on the 29th of 
July, 1822, adopted a long, many-articled confession of faith, 
which, with slight and unimportant modifications, continues 
in use to this day. 

But revivals of religion occurred and marked the epoch of 
this ministry as none in the history of the Church had been 
marked before. One in 18 19 brought in six young men from 
the mechanic's workshop, four of whom shortly began to 
study for the ministry, one of whom, Rev. A. Gleason, still 
lives. 

One in 1820-21 pervaded the entire region, brought into 
the Hartford County Associated churches more than a thou- 
sand converts, and added to this Church one hundred and 
thirty-eight ; three of whom are members with us to-day. 



93 

Rev. Lyman Beecher of Litchfield assisted the Pastor in 
this revival and greatly contributed to its success. 

In 1826 was another time of refreshing in this region, and 
saw as its fruits fifty-four joined to this communion. 

In 183 1 was tried the experiment of a " protracted " or 
"four-days'" meeting, it is said for the first time in Connec- 
ticut, in union with the Second and North Churches. Fifty 
persons joined this Church as its consequence. 

In .1834 an important religious awakening occurred, which 
brought into this Church many heads of families and men of 
influence in the community hitherto unreached. The Pastor 
was aided at this period by the powerful preaching of Rev. 
Dr. Taylor of New Haven. Between sixty and seventy were, 
as a consequence, added to the fellowship. The year 1838 
brought in eighty. 

In 1 841 was another great revival in this region. Rev. 
Mr. Kirk, then in the prime of his popular eloquence and 
evangelistic fervor, preached in many of the Hartford 
churches with persuasive power. One hundred and ten per- 
sons were added to the Church at this period. More than 
one hundred stood up at one time in this aisle to confess 
their new faith. The revival of 1852 brought in sixty-six, 
and that of 1858 fifty. 

Ten periods of distinct religious awakening occurred during 
this ministry, and there were added to the Church in that 
space of time, by confession of faith, ten hundred and seventy- 
nine members. 

It is obvious to remark, in view of a fact like this, that the 
ministry of this eminent Pastor was cast in a period more 
characterized by general revival influences than any which 
had gone before for a hundred years, or that, from present 
signs, seems very likely soon to occur again. But it is 
equally obvious that these extraordinary results were largely 
attributable to the man himself who was in this pastorate at 
that period. His zeal, his wisdom, his perseverance, his pro- 
found convictions, his unmistakable sincerity and devotion, 
were powerful and, it is perfectly proper to say, indispensable 
elements in that wonderful series of awakenings. 



94 

It was itself indicative of one of the features of the 
Pastor's character which gave him such success in revival 
work, that Dr. Hawes preached, in 1827, that course of 
Lectures to ^ Young Men which, on their delivery here and in 
New Haven, produced so profound an impression, and when 
published, both in this country and in England in repeated 
editions, wrought a still wider and more lasting benefit. 

The volume may seem trite now, but it was a venture into 
a comparatively fresh and untrodden field then, and aside 
from any higher ends attained by it, it made appropriate (cer- 
tainly as such things go) the Doctorate which Mr. Hawes 
received from the college of his youth. 

But if the period of this pastorate was one of large acces- 
sions to the church, it was also one of large colonizations 
from it. 

On the 23d of September, 1824, ninety-seven members 
received dismission from this Church, and were organized as 
the North Church. 

On the 10th of January, 1832, eighteen members were 
organized with others as the Free, now the Fourth Church. 

On the 14th of October, 1852, thirty-six members of this 
Church, and soon after eleven more, were dismissed to unite 
with others in forming the Pearl Street Church. 

On the 5th of March, 1865, forty members and shortly 
after eleven more, were dismissed to unite with others in 
forming the Asylum Hill Church. 

The old Church was a quarry out of which everybody was 
free to draw the living stones of newer temples. It gave 
liberally. It gave men and it gave money. It was eminently 
a church-planting and missionary Church. 

The personal interest of its Pastor in the larger aspects 
of missionary work, which has been evidenced among other 
cogent ways in his giving his only daughter to live, and as 
it proved, to die on foreign missionary ground, was not with- 
out result in training the congregation to large-minded benefi- 
cence both at home and abroad. 

Meantime, all alongside this really grand record of churchly 



95 

prosperity and usefulness ran the usualf line of perplexing, 
amusing, and drudging incidents. Some people of the good 
old Society loved its privileges, but didn't like to pay for 
them. And so every year or two, from 1823 to 4848, votes 
appear on the records showing difficulties about meeting 
expenses, and expedients to make occupants of good pews, 
of an economical turn of mind, contribute a due proportion 
of the parish costs. An Act of the Legislature in the latter 
year, sought and secured as a means of grace to such, allow- 
ing the taxation of pews like any other property, seems to 
have been the effectual call, where other methods failed. 

In 1830 the Society raised the question of the possibility of 
appropriating something to help the Sunday-school ; debated 
it, doubted its legality, appointed a committee to investigate 
the novel and difficult question, had a divided report on the 
issue, thought it best to move slowly, and in 1842 (twelve 
years afterward), hazarded a first appropriation of a hundred 
and fifty dollars. 

The year 1831 brought up a question of a new conference- 
.room, in place of the old one in Temple street ; and the year 
1832 brought the conference-room itself, the one now used. 
But it brought, also, in doing it, the appropriation and extin- 
guishment of the fund so solemnly described in 1802, " to be 
forever kept entire as a Society Fund, the interest thereof 
to be appropriated and applied for the support of the ministry 
in the society." 

^ The year 1822 saw the first organ put into this house, and 
the year 1835 saw the second — the one just displaced — an 
instrument so excellent that the Society's extended thanks to 
the maker of it are inscribed on its records. But, alas, 
nothing quite suits everybody, and 1837 saw on file the peti- 
. tion of Ezekiel Williams, entreating relief from the terrible 
" sub-bass " of the dulcet new organ. A committee was 
raised to harmonize the sub-bass with the petitioner's nerves, 
with what success does not appear. 

The year 1835 lowered the pulpit a second time, and 
brought the galleries down nearly five feet ; and 185 1 swept 



9 6 

out the old square pews around the walls, and the mahogany 
pulpit, lustrous yet, in the memory of some here, above all 
structures beside. 

Early in 1863 Dr. Hawes wrote to the Society expressing 
his desire for a colleague in the ministerial work. The 
Society voted that it did not want a " colleague," but " a new 
minister, Dr. Hawes still retaining his pastoral relations to 
us." Dr. Hawes replied in an extended communication, 
urging the colleagueship, and declaring that the position of 
pastor emeritus proposed by the Society was " a change 
greater than [he] could at present desire." The Society 
yielded to his wish, and on the 21st of October, 1862, Mr. 
Wolcott Calkins was installed Associate Pastor. Mr. Calkins 
was born at Painted Post (now Corning), New York, June 10, 
1831; graduated at Yale College 1856; studied Theology at 
Union Seminary in 1859, anc ^ at tne University of Halle in 
1860-1862. He was never " licensed" as a preacher, being 
ordained as well as installed at his entrance on the associate 
pastorate with Dr. Hawes. Mr. Calkins fulfilled the func- 
tions of his office about eighteen months, when, on April 
29, 1864, he resigned his associate pastorship. His resigna- 
tion was followed on the 5th of May by that of Dr. Hawes. 
An ecclesiastical council met on the 17th of May to con- 
sider the resignation of Mr. Calkins, but during its delibera- 
tions the case was withdrawn. Reassembled by call, however, 
on the 6th of July, Mr. Calkins was dismissed, Dr. Hawes 
being lef t pastor emeritus of the Church. 

On the 14th of December, 1864, Rev. George H. Gould 
was installed pastor. Mr. Gould was born Feb. 20, 1827, at 
Oakham, Mass. Graduating at Amherst College in 1850, 
and Union Seminary in 1853, the early portion of his minis- 
try was spent in evangelistic work, chiefly in Wisconsin. 
He was ordained November 13, 1862, and served as acting 
pastor of the Olivet church, Springfield, Mass., from 1863 to 
1864, when he became Pastor of this Church. Dr. Gould 
continued in office till the nth day of October, 1870, when 
he was dismissed with the concurrence of a council. During 







^fc^ 



X 






,£&&^uX<jn^_^ 



97 

Dr. Gould's pastorate the old and venerated pastor enter iUts 
died. This event took place at Gilead, where he had 
preached the Sunday previous, on May 5, 1867. All his 
children had died before him. His son, Erskine, pastor of 
the church in Plymouth, was killed by accident in July i860, 
His wife followed him, dying a week afterwards. 

Three discourses suggested by the life and death of Dr. 
Hawes were preached in Hartford. One at his funeral on 
June 8th, by President Woolsey ; one by Rev. E. P. Parker 
of the Second Church, and one by Dr. Gould, the Pastor of 
this Church. 

Few are the ministers of New England who have turned 
so many to righteousness as Joel Hawes. 

The pastorate of Rev. Dr. Gould was also marked by the 
reception by this Society, August 27, 1869, of the Fund 
devised by Mrs. Mary A. Warburton for support of the ser- 
vices at the Chapel which had been built by her previously 
(in 1865) on ground purchased by individual members of the 
Church. In May 1866, a charter for the School at this 
Chapel was granted to Mrs. Warburton and others. This 
mission was in 1869 formally adopted under the conditions 
of Mrs. Warburton's will by this Church. Under varying 
management and method this Warburton mission has been 
the scene of the most consecrated and laborious efforts 
put forth by the younger members of this fellowship in all 
the Church's later history. It shines in a dark place, and its 
beams have guided many heavenward. 

In the spring of 1871 this Church and Society extended 
a call to the pastorate made vacant by the dismission of Dr. 
Gould, to 'Rev. William H. Lord, D.D., of Montpelier, Ver- 
mont, an invitation which was, however, declined. 

More than a year elapsed in unsuccessful quest of a Pas- 
tor, when, on April 24, 1872, Rev. Elias H. Richardson, 
< 

lately of Westfield, Mass., was installed in that office. Mr. 
Richardson was born at Lebanon, N. H., Aug. II, 1827, 
graduated at Dartmouth College in 1850, and at Andover in 
1853. He was pastor, successively, at Goffstown and Ando- 
ver, N. H., Providence, R. I., and Westfield, Mass. 
'3 



9 8 

He came to this pastorate in his forty-fifth year of age, 
and fulfilled in it a most laborious and faithful ministry of 
about six years and eight months. During this period 
occurred the series of meetings held in Hartford under the 
leadership of Mr. D. L. Moody and subsequently of Rev. 
George H. Pentecost, in the winter of 1877-8. 

In connection with these meetings and partly as their 
direct consequence a large numerical accession was made to 
the membership of the Hartford churches. About seventy- 
five names were added to the roll of this Church as such 
result. 

Dr. Richardson left the marks of his own earnest sincerity 
deeply engraved on many of the younger members of this 
fellowship, who first of all think of him when they think of 
their guide to Christian living. He was a man of quick and 
keen intellectual perceptions, of warm and impulsive tem- 
perament, of delicate sensibilities, and devout piety. Some- 
thing in the intensity of his feelings contrasted with the 
more deliberate habitudes of the congregation, made the 
relationship less congenial to him than perhaps it might have 
been to a man of colder blood. But no truer-hearted servant 
of Christ ever stood in this pulpit than he. 

In December, 1878, Dr. Richardson resigned his pastorate 
here to accept that of the First church in New Britain, which 
had been tendered him. He was dismissed here on the 23d 
of that month, and installed there January 7, 1879. 

His pastorate at New Britain was eminently useful and 
happy. He was cut off from it in the full prime of his vigor 
and success, dying honored and beloved on the 27th of June, 
1883, and being buried among the people of his latest pasto- 
ral charge. A funeral address on that occasion was pro- 
nounced by Rev. N. J. Burton, D.D., of this city, and on the 
following Sabbath a biographical discourse concerning Dr. 
Richardson's life and character was delivered in the Pearl 
Street Church by Rev. Dr. W. L. Gage. He was the first of 
the ministers of this Church to die elsewhere than in Hart- 
ford or to be buried elsewhere than in Hartford soil. 



99 

The present Pastor was installed February 27, 1879. 

No one can be more sensible than the speaker on this 
occasion how inadequate the words now spoken are to tell 
the story of this Church's two hundred and fifty years. The 
inevitable condensation of a narrative like this, long though 
it has been, presses out the flavor and perfume of what was, 
in Time's unfolding of it, a living and sometimes a lovely 
reality. The dried raisin of commerce is not much like the 
ripe grape of the vine. It touches one with a sense of 
pathos and almost of anger to think how much of sweetness 
and nobleness in private piety in all these years ; how much 
of faithfulness and self-sacrifice, of parental solicitude and 
of individual consecrated endeavor in the brotherhood of this 
Church has been passed over untold, nay, has perished 
utterly from human remembrance. The deeds, the experi- 
ences, the hopes, the cares, nay, even the names of this two- 
and-a-half century companionship are, and must forever 
remain, unknown. 

But unrecorded in the memories of men, they abide in 
the better registry of His mind and heart, who in all this 
duration has been this Church's guide and head. 

What remains to us of the story carries with it its own 
plain lessons, sometimes of encouragement, sometimes of 
warning ; now of reproof, and now of cheer. But the whole of 
it points us forward and not backward as the millennial time. 
This is not our rest. The New Jerusalem was never yet 
builded on any continent of earthly soil. Now, as ever, we 
wait the larger promises of the Kingdom of God. The clouds 
of witnesses who have gone before us seem to say, — and let 
us join them in the cry, — " Lord Jesus come quickly." 



Thursday Evening. 




7h& 



CO/7 (%Ct (fs4c4<s 



Mr. Cone said : This memorial window has upon it the names of 
Calkins and Gould, who were once pastors here. They are in life and 
with us and we shall hear their voices again to-night. 

It also bears the name of another pastor, whose image is before me, 
and whose recent and sudden death speaks most eloquently to us in 
language like this: be ye also ready, for ye know not the hour or day 
when the Master will call for thee. It is the eloquence of the dead. 
He has gone up higher; but who can say that his spirit is not with us 
to-night. Elias H. Richardson was a conscientious and faithful pastor 
here for more than six years, and though dead he speaks to us as no 
living pastor can speak. 

Mr. Cone then introduced Rev. Wolcott Calkins, who was settled 
as associate with Dr. Hawes for about two years. 

ADDRESS OF REV. WOLCOTT CALKINS. 

The memorable journey of Hooker and his company from 
Newtown to Hartford occupied nearly two weeks, and yet in 
these days of steamboats and railroads it took me seventeen 
years to get back from Hartford to the same old Newtown ! 
The proverb was at fault, for once ; the " longest way 'round 
was not the shortest way home." My journey around by 
Philadelphia and Buffalo was a great deal longer than the 
straight path our fathers made by compass and the stars 
through the primeval forest. But it has taken me only a 
few hours to come to you now, and I bring with me the fresh 
and hearty greetings of the churches and brethren, not only 
of the original Newtown, but of Boston and its vicinity. 
Your immediate successor, the First Church of Cambridge, 
has sent you, as I am informed, a token of its reverence and 
affection, and I have the honor to hand to your pastor a 
letter from my own church, the only church here represented 
in the original town where your history began. For the 
town as it was enlarged in the hope of keeping Hooker and 
his company from emigrating, included Billerica, Bedford, 



104 

and Arlington on the north, Brighton and Brookline on the 
south, together with the present cities of Cambridge and 
Newtown. And all through that region the precious influ- 
ences of Hooker's ministry of less than three years still con- 
tinue in the godly descendants of some of his company left 
behind, in the fidelity of the churches to the doctrines and 
polity which he taught, and in the magnificent university 
which he helped to found. A few days ago I visited the 
spot where Hooker and Stone were ordained pastor and 
teacher of this church, October n, 1633. A modest build- 
ing of brick, in which good bread is baked, stands now 
where they dispensed the bread of life, at the intersection 
of Dunster and Mt. Auburn streets. On its corner stone 
you may read this inscription : 

SITE OF THE FIRST MEETING-HOUSE IN CAMBRIDGE, ERECTED 

IN 1632. 

The proprietor told me that he found traces of the old 
foundations, in excavating for his walls. A little to the 
northeast, on what is now a part of the college grounds, 
stood Hooker's house. Stone lived still nearer the meeting- 
house, on the present Boylston street. As you stand on 
that sacred spot to-day, and glance at the university with 
nearly 200 officers and instructors, and 1,500 students, and 
think of that great town twenty miles north and south, and 
fifteen miles east and west, on which two cities have since 
grown to a population of nearly 75,000 ; or as you climb to 
the tower of Memorial Hall, and survey the splendid city in 
the harbor, and sweep around over Dorchester Heights to 
Wellesley Hills and back again by Arlington and Summer- 
ville to Bunker Hill and Boston, one of the most beautiful 
landscapes on this continent, glorified by the homes and 
industries and institutions of a prosperous community of 
nearly 400,000, — you cannot help wondering why in the 
world your ancestors were so " straitened for room," at a time 
when there were not more than one hundred families, and 
five or six hundred persons in all Newtown ! I suspect there 



105 

was not room enough in all Massachusetts for two such men 
as Thomas Hooker and John Cotton ! Neither Paul nor 
Hooker could build on another man's foundation. The high 
calling of God to more magnificent conquests, was reverber- 
ating in his soul. And it seems to me that if ever the 
spirits of just men made perfect in heaven are permitted to 
know that their prayers are answered and their sublimest 
purposes are accomplished, then these heroic and sainted 
men are with us now, looking upon this scene which thrills 
our hearts with the conviction that the " strong bent of their 
spirits to remove hither " was indeed the voice of God. 

The singular providence which makes me the connecting 
link between Massachusetts and Connecticut, and between 
the past and the present, has seemed to me more worthy of 
commemoration to-day than my own brief ministry to this 
church. My service was merely to make a transition. It seems 
to be the will of God that life-long and illustrious ministries 
to the churches, like those of Gardiner Spring, and William 
Adams, and Leonard Bacon, and Joel Hawes, shall not in 
our times pass into new and equally permanent workman- 
ship without an experiment, and usually a series of experi- 
ments. My own little experiment would hardly deserve 
mention in the magnificent history we are recounting to-day, 
if it had not served in part to facilitate the transition to the 
existing condition of ensured prosperity. 

But although my work in itself was so insignificant, there 
was something incident to it which is well worth commemo- 
rating to-day. The faith of the church in calling me, and 
their enthusiastic support, seem to me almost miraculous in 
the retrospect. Untried, unlicensed, inexperienced, before I 
had preached half a dozen formal sermons in my life, I was 
invited, without the least misgiving on their part, or, as I am 
bound to add, on my own, to be the teacher of this illustrious 
church. And, to the last, I never knew of any heart that 
faltered except mine. The first grief this church occasioned 
me was the grief inflicted by myself, the pang of separation. 
It is sweet to tell you how grateful I am for this, now that 
14 



io6 

many years have deepened and hallowed the sentiment. 
Every little incident of my ordination comes back to me now 
with genial and tender associations. The smile on Dr. 
Bushnell's face, when I told the council that I believed 
everything in all the Orthodox creeds, and confessions, and 
catechisms, from Westminster and Cambridge down to the 
Saybrook Platform ; the long pause, when I began to hope 
they would surrender without firing a shot ; the childlike 
suggestion of President Woolsey that some of the brethren 
might have forgotten their catechisms, and so might like to 
hear me tell in my own words just what I believed j the fear 
I felt, when the council continued with closed doors till 
about dark, that they were throwing me overboard ; my relief 
to learn they were only trying to find out when I was con- 
verted, and my regret that they had not decided that question 
ex cathedra: 

" Tis a point I long to know." 

During the prayer of consecration and the laying on of 
hands, there was a momentary confusion ; suppressed whis- 
pers ; moving of chairs ; at last my feet were tenderly lifted. 
In my ignorance of the " way of the churches " I supposed 
this was a part of the ceremony, and remembered with awe 
how in the Jewish ritual, not only the head, but the hands 
and the feet of the priest were successively touched ! But I 
afterwards learned that Dr. Hawes had lost his spectacles ! 
I am very glad those spectacles were found. I could not 
afford to lose a word of that generous charge, by which he 
welcomed me as his associate. 

I cannot recall the whole of Dr. Hawes's extended and 
eloquent charge. But I remember distinctly every word of 
another charge which was given me unofficially by an experi- 
enced minister in the council, to whom no part had been 
assigned: "God bless you, my young friend, and be thank- 
ful all the rest of your life, if during the first two years of 
your ministry you do not do more harm than good ! " 

When I think of my inexperience, my impetuous nature, 
and the volcanic times in which we lived, these words come 



io7 

back to me with tremendous significance. For that was in 
1862. Lincoln had just announced the approaching procla- 
mation of emancipation ; McClellan was retreating from 
before Richmond ; our forces were falling back upon the 
defences of Washington; Harper's Ferry surrendered; the 
Shenandoah Valley passed ; Lee marching into Pennsylvania ! 
What an awful time for a hot-headed youth to begin the 
ministry of reconciliation ! Reconciliation ! My first 
thanksgiving sermon was a vindication of the imprecatory 
Psalms, and of the righteous wrath of an outraged people, 
against the "basest wickedness ever perpetrated in the 
world since the crucifixion of the Redeemer." My first fast 
day sermon was a bugle call for volunteers, to fill up our 
depleted ranks. One of my first pastoral duties was to bear 
the intelligence of wounds and death to a stricken family. 
One of my first funerals, was the burial of Lieutenant Weld, 
who died near the battle-field, singing, 

"Just as I am, thy love unknown 
Has broken every barrier down." 

One wedding was solemnized while the battle of Gettys- 
burg was raging and still undecided. Every Sunday this 
whole congregation would run straight from the door of the 
meeting-house to read the bulletin boards posted on the 
other side of the street. Dr. Hawes would shake his head, 
mourn for the sanctity of the Sabbath, and then ask some- 
body to tell him the news! How could we help it? The 
names of the best young men of Hartford were often posted 
in those awful lists of killed and wounded. This genera- 
tion can never realize the conflicting emotions of that hour : 
fierce, irrepressible indignation, terror verging towards 
despair, and then flaming up into invincible courage. These 
were the sufferings which purchased the liberty, union, and 
perpetual prosperity of this imperial republic. 

For that deep and burning passion, which tended not only 
to make the religion of this church patriotic, but almost to 
make our patriotism our religion, I must assume my full 
responsibility. Perhaps the dear brethren also have some 



io8 

account to give, for the generous support they afforded me, 
and the impetuous way they had of silencing every murmur 
at my ferocious denunciations and fervid appeals. 

I suppose I should have been more consistent if the 
commanding tone of my spiritual, as well as of my political 
preaching had been more of law and of duty and of retribu- 
tion, than of the tenderness that belongs to the spirit of pure 
Christianity. And yet the very first sermons after my 
inaugural, were a series of three on the love of God to sinful 
man. I can almost see Governor Ellsworth now as he came 
out of that pew, and, with the tremulous voice which always 
made me feel like shedding tears, even when he had nothing 
to say except " Good morning," grasped my hand while actual 
tears flowed down his face, to tell me that he never felt before 
how God loved him while he was an impenitent sinner. The 
fact is, there was no attempt to make things consistent in 
this pulpit. The imprecatory Psalms got mixed up with the 
hymn of Charity in First Corinthians ; the Book of Esther 
with the Prodigal Son ; justification of rebels against God 
with apocalyptic anathemas to rebels against the United 
States ; Christ, the prophet, priest, and king of a new dis- 
pensation of love with the most devastating woes of the old 
prophets ; love to enemies in general with shame and ever- 
lasting contempt to our enemies in Virginia. Dr. Hawes 
told me about a great revival which marked the beginning of 
his ministry. We prayed together in his study for a revival 
at the outset of mine. But when I think of these harsh and 
inevitable discords between law and gospel, and of the pre- 
occupied sympathies of the whole country, the wonder is, 
not that there was no revival, but that anybody was con- 
verted. Precious souls were converted. Among the thirteen 
whom I welcomed at my first communion were five boys ; one 
of them, present with us to-day, is now the minister of an 
important church in a neighboring city. And among the 
seventy-six received during my ministry, are many of the 
founders of the Asylum Hill church, and many of the most 
useful members of this and other churches. Nearly all the 



109 

young men were gone to the war. The children clustered 
around me, in little classes for spiritual instruction, and in 
thrilling services of praise, when such songs came forth from 
that gallery as have never been heard since that night in 
Bethlehem. There was a great enlargement of mission work 
in this city. My regular preaching services at the State 
street hall, Sunday evenings, were crowded, and conversions 
were frequent. From that mission, which had been in 
successful operation before my day, Warburton Chapel has 
since grown. Earnest helpers, especially Christian ladies, 
entered with ardor upon the work of visiting the neglected 
from house to house. 

In short, we had a great many irons in the fire, and we kept 
them all red hot. No matter where I led, this conservative 
church followed me up with enthusiasm. There was a little 
girl — how well I remember her, for my first burial service of 
little children was the funeral of that child and her baby 
sister, — this little girl became greatly excited the first time I 
ever preached in this pulpit. She had never seen the decks 
cleared for action before. Her eyes opened wide, she grasped 
her mother's hand, and as I would move back, and step 
forward, she would whisper — " Now, look out ! " At last she 
exclaimed : 

" Now, mamma, look — now he is going to jump over ! " 
I presume this little girl was not alone in that apprehension. 
There was a general expectation most of the time, that I was 
going to jump. City missions, new plans for the prayer- 
meeting, new ways of keeping church registers, new orders 
of service, new schemes for helping the soldiers. We kept 
on the jump. But I have this to say, out of a heart full of 
thankfulness : No matter where I jumped, this beloved 
church, so illustrious for its dignity and deliberation, were 
always ready to jump with me. I do not say they could have 
endured it a great while. But things were lively for a couple 
of years, and it was all for love of me. They appreciated 
and magnified every good thing I tried to do. They were so 
charitable for my faults that I was always cheered, never 



no 

depressed. An eminent philological scholar in the congrega- 
tion once pointed out a gross mistake I had made in the 
derivation of an English word, with such hearty admiration 
of the point which my blunder illustrated, that his criticism 
was turned into flattery. " And after all," he said, " you got 
it near enough right for preaching" So they helped me in 
my little experiment here, when flaming zeal, perhaps, was 
more needful than wisdom, and they made me receptive of a 
little wisdom for the real work of my life elsewhere — those 
magnificent men and women of twenty-one years ago. God 
bless them all ! I believe the communion of saints, I pray 
not for the dead, but I praise the dead more than the living, 
and I breathe out here all my love and my ardent longings 
for unbroken communion with them on earth and in heaven. 
I will not let such a common accident and inevitable calamity 
as death shatter the vision splendid, which rises before me 
in this hallowed place, — the vision of that vast congregation, 
of governors and senators and judges and financial monarchs, 
with their families and the industrious intelligent population 
of the city, crowding every pew on the floor and in the 
galleries, and signalling by breathless silence, by eager look, 
and often by tears, their intense interest in the message God 
gave me to proclaim. All illusions are dispelled by that 
imperishable remembrance, and all vagueness removed from 
our heavenly aspirations. We are come to the city of the 
living God, to the general assembly of the first born. They 
are not far away. 

Sweet spirits round us ! Watch us still, 

Press nearer to our side; 
Into our thoughts, into our prayers, 

With gentle helpings glide. 

Let death between us be as naught, 

A dried and vanished stream ; 
Your joy be the reality, 

Our suffering life the dream ! 

They all appeal to this ancient and reinvigorated church 
to be true to its untarnished history. For 250 years they 




§U W. (?znJA- 



Ill 

have fought the good fight, they have kept the faith. And 
still the First Church of Christ in Hartford, like the great 
nation with whose birth its own was coincident, is in the 
freshness of its youth. Its most healthful growth and its 
grandest work are yet in the future; the nation and the earth 
itself shall perish, before the foundations be removed of the 
church of the blessed God! 



Rev. Mr. Gould was introduced by Mr. Cone as follows : Rev. Dr. 
George H. Gould was the successor of Mr. Calkins. He needs no 
introduction where he is so well known as in this place. The audience 
are invited to listen to what he has to say. 

ADDRESS OF REV. GEORGE H. GOULD. 

Standing under the shadow of the centuries as we all have 
been standing to-day, and with the music of that grand his- 
toric discourse still ringing in our ears, any reference to an 
individual pastorate so modern and brief as my own, seems 
almost an impertinence. But greatness is both intrinsic and 
derivative. Any small claim I may have upon your hearing 
to-night then, springs from the simple fact that it fell to me 
through the great charity and forbearance of the people, 
for a short period, to stand in this grand historic line of 
Center church pastors ; and when in the Providence of God 
I was compelled, sorrowfully, to close my connection with it 
coveted no higher endorsement from others, or my own con- 
science, than the assurance that I had left upon it — bating 
our common human infirmity — no stain of unfaithfulness, 
and had not flagrantly dishonored it by theological or mental 
incapacity. I have always felt that I owed a debt of grati- 
tude hitherto unacknowledged publicly, to my immediate pre- 
decessor, Dr. Calkins, who has now addressed you, for the 
great service he rendered me and all others after him — in 
shattering so effectually as he did the traditional idol well 
nigh worshiped by this people up to this day — viz. : that no 



112 

pastor had a right to leave this church, except by a direct 
interposition of God — in other words, by translation through 
the gate of death to a better land. Indeed, before my brother 
Calkins' time, it was about as much as a man's life was worth 
to think of leaving Center church alive. It was flying in 
the face of all traditional decency. The Spartan mother 
exhorted her son to come back with his shield, or upon it. 
It was not enough for a servant of this church to come back 
from the holy wars with his shield — he must be stretched 
upon it, or he had made no fit ending of the fight. Nothing 
in the life of a Center church minister " became him like the 
leaving it." I shall never forget the first annual church 
report after my settlement, read by my revered and beloved 
senior deacon, Gov. Ellsworth. In his peculiarly imposing 
and impressive manner he sketched the opening of my min- 
istry, and drawing upon his imagination, went on down the 
years, depicting an almost ideal pastorate — until he came to 
my obsequies — when, with a faltering and choking voice, he 
described the last scene, and I saw myself most decorously 
laid away in the old burying ground, side by side with the 
sleeping dust of my honored predecessors. But somehow 
my brother, under the pressure of an emergency, having 
hewed his way through and over this venerated custom — I 
was the more easily able to leave with the breath of life in 
me. But I went away so nearly a dead man, that I think 
the church has been quite willing to condone my one great 
act of heterodoxy, and to welcome me from time to time, on 
my returns, with a kindness and affection that in my own 
heart I know have never ceased to glow toward this dear 
people from the hour I left them. My ministry here, though 
one of great burdens, and weaknesses, was also one of great 
joy. No minister ever received from a people a more gener- 
ous care, a more thoughtful support, a more delicate consid- 
eration for his " often infirmities." And though the nominal 
tie that binds us has long since been severed, I have still 
investments here — a stock interest in this old church, a life 
interest that has been paying me blessed dividends ever since 



H3 

I entered its pastorate. And in the great day, I trust, it will 
appear that some " born here " are to be my "joy and crown " 
forever. 

First impressions, as we all know, are often more truthful 
in seizing salient characteristics than any later. As this is 
an occasion largely of reminiscence, I may be indulged in 
one or two of Old Center when I came to it in '64. The first 
thing that struck me as I entered the church doors and stood 
with trembling knees in the high old pulpit was not exactly 
the " union of church and state " before me, but the presence 
of a congregation in which, at least, the august dignities and 
decorums of this present world seemed singularly blended 
with an aspect of reverence and devout spirituality that I had 
never seen surpassed. Dr. Hawes, in one of his retrospective 
sermons, describes his own first impressions of this people 
so graphically that I may be pardoned for transcribing a sen- 
tence as my own. " As I walked up the broad aisle," he 
says, " I seemed to be in the midst of an assembly of Roman 
senators, so thickly scattered in every part of the house were 
grave and venerable men, their heads hoary with age and 
with honor, and their upturned countenances so intelligent, 
so dignified, so devout and thoughtful, that I was filled with 
awe as I beheld them." Forty years later this photograph 
had not wholly faded out. And yet in the ordinary sense, 
nothing like wordly parade could be detected. No protuber- 
ant and carnal self-assertion in the pews. No self-advertis- 
ing Croesuses appeared. If Diotrephes was present he kept 
his love of pre-eminence skillfully out of sight, at least dur- 
ing the hour of worship. One feeling seemed uppermost 
with every auditor. " How dreadful is this place. This is 
none other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven." 
And yet with all this devoutness, the suggestion was sure to 
steal back to the preacher, as he glanced among his audience, 
that probably they were not wholly unfamiliar with Thomas 
Binney's great sermon, " How to Make the Best of Both 
Worlds." Traces of honored lineage, cultured homes, high 
intellectuality, eminent citizenship, and large wealth were 
l 5 



ii4 

visible all over the congregation. But these things it seemed 
to me, were all held under law to Christ, and under recog- 
nized stewardship to God to an extent that I had not before 
known. 

But underneath this external gravity and dignity, I soon 
discovered a heart loyalty existing toward the old church 
itself, that to me was a revelation. This church I soon 
learned was not simply a "church," but an institution, with 
the momentum of ages behind it. And pastor or no pastor 
it had a life of its own that no ordinary earthly vicissitudes 
could imperil. Like Tennyson's brook — "men might come 
and go," but this church would " go on forever." As well 
think of Connecticut river becoming extinct as Center church. 
They loved their ministers, reverenced them as do few others. 
But the minister, I soon found, borrowed his luster from the 
church and not the church from the minister, — as was alto- 
gether proper. 

And thus from this historic spirit naturally grew up at 
length a deep-rooted aversion to change and innovation. I 
was younger than now, and had more rashness in my blood, 
or never could I have brought myself to lay a sacrilegious 
hand on the old candlestick of a pulpit that hung between 
the heavens and the earth, when I came here. I have since 
looked upon it as a strain put on the affection and confidence 
of this people in me beyond almost any other I subjected 
them to, that they listened for a moment to my suggested 
reconstruction of the old pulpit. But after a long and toil- 
some siege laid at the minds and hearts of the committee, I 
succeeded in getting it brought forward, the platform enlarged, 
the old box barricading stripped away ; but I did not get the 
thing lowered one inch. The committee stuck there, and 
wouldn't budge. But the old pulpit has come down ! — a 
blessed sign, I must think, of the near approach of that happy 
day when " the mountains shall be brought low and all the 
valleys exalted ! " 

But not to prolong. This historic conservatism, let me 
now say, has brought two great blessings to this people : 



i»5 

First, absence of internal dissensions and perennial harmony 
within its borders. To no Jerusalem, ancient or modern, I 
am confident, has the prayer for peace been more richly 
answered. I used to think that hardly any event less nota- 
ble than the earthquake which rent the old temple at the 
crucifixion could split Center church into anything like 
opposing factions. This church then, for a good while, has 
not been an inviting field for troublers in Israel — for peripa- 
tetic religious cranks and " crooked sticks " to operate in. 
Each generation has seemed to serve as an added girder or 
hoop of steel to bind this brotherhood into a more indestructi- 
ble organic unity. 

The second blessing to which I refer is stanchness and 
stability of faith. Other churches have been scattered and 
blown about, from time to time, with adverse winds of 
doctrine. Not the old Center. Some churches have betrayed 
itching ears for another gospel which is not another. Not 
the old Center. We hear a great deal nowadays about " new 
light " in theology. But I go back to the great Hooker, 
your first pastor — " the light of the western churches," and 
running over his published sermons and treatises I find him 
holding up the cross of the same crucified Lord, and preach- 
ing essentially the same doctrines to which you are listening 
to-day — although 250 years separate these two pastorates, your 
first and your last. We are told that some of the timber used 
in your first meeting-house is still in existence in this pre- 
sent building. Sure I am that some of the old Hooker tim- 
ber is still extant in the ministration of this pulpit, — for which 
let us thank God and take courage. And this is the Gospel 
pabulum with which this flock has been fed from the first 
— though with unequal ability. Dr. Hawes, after preaching 
ten Sabbaths before his settlement writes to a friend, " I have 
preached with all that plainness and pungency which I should 
wish to use in preaching to those whom I never expect to 
meet again in this world. But I cannot make myself believe 
that these fine folks and fastidious lawyers will wish to have 
me everv Sabbath showering barbed arrows at them. True 



n6 

it is, however, I have not taken a single step more or less for 
the sake of pleasing them." And it was just like Center 
Church to settle him — " barbed arrows " and all — if convinced 
that they came from a true Gospel quiver. And this key 
note then struck, Dr. Hawes held to, without introducing a 
single " flat " into the scale for forty years. And this church 
when I came to it was largely the child of that remarkable 
ministry. I could wish more time for personal reminiscences. 
Fain would I speak of Ellsworth, and Ward, and Stone, and 
Capron, and Barbour, and Hudson, and Jewell, the Churches, 
the Perkinses, the Goodriches, the Smiths, and Brace, and 
Vermilye, and Hosmer, and Howe, and Hamilton, and Harris, 
and Skinner, and Kendall — all of whom, and a great multi- 
tude beside, have now crossed the River. What church was 
ever served on a communion Sunday by a nobler board of 
deacons. What church ever had a more winsome usher and 
doorkeeper on a Sabbath morning than Skinner, who loved 
this old vestibule as he loved the very gate of heaven. I 
have mentioned as yet no mother in our Israel of that day. 
What a roll of precious names I might recall. I will instance, 
however, but one; and she, by God's goodness, yet among 
the living. But her active service has -spanned so many dif- 
ferent pastorates, and I owe her personally such a debt of 
gratitude, that I trust she will pardon any seeming irreverence 
if I now venture to designate her by a name that has become 
sacred in the ears of more than two generations of Center 
Church children. " Aunty Brown " — may God bless her. 

I counted it my great good fortune that Dr. Hawes lived 
two years and a half after I came here. He was then a 
Hartford institution. As was also Dr. Bushnell. To make 
the acquaintance of two such men simultaneously, marked 
an epoch in any young minister's life. Both were men of a 
unique and tremendous personality. Both were positive in 
their makeup as Niagara falls. Large-souled and big-calibred 
by nature, neither was capable of any approach toward duplic- 
ity, finesse, or indirection. Hawes had talent — Bushnell 
had genius. Hawes was strong in the singular symmetry of 



ii7 

his powers, Bushnell by the dazzling uplift of his ideal 
nature Hawes was strong in body, strong in will, strongest 
of all in his intense convictions. Bushnell, not strong in 
body, was the equal of Hawes in will, far stronger than he in 
intellect and imagination, but in convictions tentative and 
interrogatory to the close. Hawes wrought out his whole 
ministry from the center of an unwavering faith in the Written 
Word, Bushnell under the inner light of his own intuitive 
reason. Hawes carved his name in men, Bushnell in books. 
The name of Hawes will soon be forgotten ; but by a moral 
metempsychosis he will pass into the lives of his spiritual 
children, and his influence on earth will be immortal. The 
name of Bushnell — though his grasp on his own time had less 
of flesh and blood vigor in it than that of his contemporary 
— will live in literature for generations, and like a star mount- 
ing higher and higher toward the zenith, will hold the world's 
gaze so long as men are attracted by inspiring thought, and 
the witcheries of a style that is simply prose poetry from 
beginning to end. 

It was my privilege to know and to love both these men. 
And the Hartford of twenty years ago — as I first knew it — 
without Hawes and Bushnell in the foreground, would be 
as the play of Hamlet, with Hamlet left out. 



Mr. Cone introduced Rev. Dr. Burton, saying: 

This First Church of Christ was the pioneer in all Christian work 
here. On this two hundred and fiftieth anniversary it finds itself sur- 
rounded by a great number of protestant evangelical churches in Hart- 
ford, with which it is in full fellowship, and several of which were col- 
onists from its own fold. Though venerable in years, the voice of the 
old pioneer is not yet silent. It is still heard in no uncertain tones, 
faithful to its early traditions, bidding these churches to "stand fast in 
the Lord." 

Dr. Burton, of all the city pastors, has been the longest settled in 
the ministry, and we will ask him to speak for them. 



n8 



ADDRESS OF REV. N. J. BURTON. 

I knew beforehand, that during these two great days of 
commemoration and jubilee, it would be intimated more than 
once that this dear old First Church is the mighty Mother of 
all the other Congregational churches in this city, and that that 
is one of the reasons why she ought to be dear, so I began to 
stir about in my own mind over two questions : First, is she 
the progenitor of the rest of us in any reasonable sense, or 
even in any imaginative sense, that has real bottom to it ; and 
secondly, how dear, exactly, is she to all of us, whether as 
having mothered us, or for any other reason, but particularly 
as having mothered us. 

On the mother question I found myself directly in an open 
and large sea. The fact is, everything is large these two days, 
and all the people here who have any historic imagination are 
in a great state of enlargement, and could speak for hours. 
But is the First church as much of a mother as most men 
would say she is. Yes, she is. And here are the evidences : 

First, when she established herself here originally in the 
wilderness, she diffused through the ever enlarging commu- 
nity here an atmosphere favorable to the upspringing of other 
Christian churches, an atmosphere in which other churches 
certainly would spring up, whether she put them forth out of 
her own bosom or not. Supposing this church had been a 
great dram shop, or a trotting park, or a merchants' exchange, 
or an insurance company, or a theater ; would the atmosphere 
all through here then have been one in which churches would 
inevitably spring up? Not at all. Exchanges and trotting 
courses, and all sorts of this-world companies, have flourished, 
often, without the least churchly thing coming of it, but this 
company of organized believers were such a kind of company 
that all the population lying about were magnetized by them, 
and made to be a people who came together in new churches, 
church after church, as naturally as the gregarious animals 
assemble and make herds. 
■ Again, this church, being deeply experienced in the things 



ii9 

of God, had a thorough-going instinct to found churches like 
herself all about, sending forth her own membership for that 
purpose ; and so it is a matter of history that every church 
of our order ever started in Hartford has drawn upon this 
church, more or less, for its first members ; as also for its 
succeeding members. And even the Baptists, and the Pres- 
byterians, and the Methodists, and almost everything you can 
think of, have made their start in the use of her children, 
and, as the years have flowed on, have continually replenished 
themselves from her inexhaustible, honest, old loins. She has 
not raised many Roman Catholics, nor many Jews, but she 
has raised everything else — not willingly or of original inten- 
tion always, but because she could not help it in some cases. 
The old hen hatched an occasional duck, as I heard Dr. 
Bacon say once concerning another matter, but she was 
always penitent and surprised when she noticed that she had 
done it. 

Now, a church which has no excursive impulse is like a 
grain of wheat that had rather stay bare grain than to sprout 
and teem in harvests. What kind of wheat is that ? Dead 
wheat, probably. But this first church was not dead. It had 
discovered certain things which it wanted the whole world 
to know ; it had had pulsations of a supernatural life which 
it desired to have reproduced in all neighbor souls ; therefore 
this church moved out, and moved out, in colonies, which 
to-day call her Mother. 

Moreover she is our mother because she does a good deal 
to impose on us her own form of faith and religious experi- 
ence. I cannot deny that we, the rest of us, have sometimes 
tried her by our venturesome experiments of doctrine, and so 
on. When she designed us for hens we struggled to be 
ducks, till it seemed to her, perhaps, that nobody could tell 
which we were. As I said before, some individuals of us 
went clear off and became Baptists, Presbyterians, and 
Methodists; and of those who remained Congregationalists, 
some lost their original, clear Calvinistic, and other, color. 
The late Charles Chapman of this city was trying to buy a 



120 

span of horses of a horse man in my congregation, years ago, 
and he said: "Now, Mr. H., give me for once an honest, 
moral bargain ; none of your Fourth church morality, but 
good solid Center church morality." And, in the same line 
of unpleasant comparison was that saying, "As honest as Dr. 
Hawes," which used to be afloat a good deal in this city, I 
remember. And Dr. Hawes himself was once guilty of a 
pretty invidious remark, which was given to me by the man 
and minister to whom he made it. I came to this city in 
1857, and about the same time came Dr. Parker of the South 
church, and Dr. Crane of the South Baptist church, and then 
something later the Rev. Messrs. Calkins, Twichell, and per- 
haps some others ; all young men, and among them stood old 
Dr. Hawes, noticing their young ways, and the rather new 
and modern sound of their gospel ; and he did not always 
like it. And he had a conversation on the subject with this 
aged minister, who told me the story ; and after criticising us 
in some respects, and admitting a few things in our favor, 
he wound up and said : " But when it comes to preaching, 
brother B., I can beat the whole of them." 

So this church has always furnished her offshoot churches 
their norm of doctrine, of experience, of morality, of preach- 
ing, and of I do not know what else. We have modified her 
motherly teachings a little now and then, for the comfort of 
our own minds and the humoring of our own infirmities, and 
she has looked on with a shade of anxiety on her face, it may 
be, but we have never intended really to pull away from her 
in the great substantial* of religion. We aim at her morality. 
We like the general sound of her doctrine. We delight in 
that evangelical experience into which she trains her mem- 
bers. We can commune cordially with her in her sacraments. 
We like the ministers whom she calls to her pulpit. I have 
known five of them — Hawes, Calkins, Gould, Richardson, 
and Walker — and, were I not fearfully cramped for time, I 
would make a rapid sketch of them that anybody could 
recognize in a minute. There is a curious amount of affec- 
tionate enjoyment in hunting out the traits and idiosyncracies 



t2l 

of able and good men, and telling of them — especially when 
Nature has fashioned the men in a mould made on purpose, 
and then has broken the mould, so that never again forever 
could the like of them be made. How impossible that a man 
like Dr. Hawes should ever be duplicated ! 

But I must not be led off by any fond recollections. We 
love the Center church for the kind of ministers she is wont 
to call into her service. That, among other things. And 
we, the young churches, like her for her green old age. A 
Chinese lad in this city, complimenting a certain lady here, 
said to her, "You are old, but you are green." And that is 
what we say to this First church. You put forth every token 
of greenness. You are "fat and flourishing." You "bring 
forth fruit in old age." You keep anniversaries. You remem- 
ber your two hundred and fifty years, and look down on the 
rest of us. And we look up to you, which is our way of 
saying that you have a right to a great self-consciousness. 
Neither a man nor a church amounts to anything without 
a self-consciousness that has a boom in it. This church 
threads back to Thomas Hooker and company, and along 
those threads come all sorts of thrills — especially to-day. 
And from every part of your quarter of a millenium come 
thrills — thrills of corporate life. And your splendid longevity, 
your indestructible corporate vigor, your ability to say, " I am 
old but I am green," has its explanation, in considerable part, 
just at that point, in your historic consciousness. We are 
proud of you. We love you. "With all your faults we 
love you still." And, with all our faults you must love us 
still. Yes, you must. You sit high up to-day as our 
mother. Well, "can a mother forget her sucking child, that 
she should not have compassion on the son of her womb ? " 
Therefore you must have compassion on us. We are young 
and little. We "are of yesterday and know nothing." Never- 
theless we are glad to be here in the murmur and bubble, 
and the tuneful shout, of your festivity. We are old enough 
to feel the flow of the great recollections that inspirit you 
16 



122 

this day. We wish you many happy returns of the day. 
Why not ? Remember the hymn of Bishop Coxe: 

" O, where are kings and empires now, 
Of old, that went and came, 
But, Lord, thy church is praying yet, 
A thousand years the same. 

" We mark her goodly battlements, 
And her foundations strong, 
We hear within, the solemn voice 
Of her unending song. 

" For not like kingdoms of the world, 
Thy holy church, O God. 
Though earthquake shocks are threatening her, 
And tempests are abroad, 

" Unshaken as eternal hills, 
Immovable she stands, 
A mountain that shall fill the earth, 
A house not made with hands." 

Oh, my brethren, in what a great fellowship we stand to- 
day ! A great fellowship of the living; a greater fellowship 
of the dead ! For, are not all your foregone generations 
here — and all the generations of your future, can you not see 
them flocking in — and can you not hear the tumult of the 
jubilee of your total membership and multitude when the 
kingdoms of this world shall have become the kingdoms of 
our Lord and of his Christ. 



Mr. Cone said : The most cordial relations have existed between 
this church and Yale College. Four of its pastors have been members 
of the Corporation. Rev. Timothy Woodbridge was one of its ten 
original Corporators, and from 1700 to the time of his death in 1732 
continued a member. He took great and earnest interest in the loca- 
tion of that institution when removed from Saybrook, and for that 
reason was appointed a Representative to the General Court (probably 
the first clerical representative ever elected) that he might advocate the 
location of the college in or near Hartford. As some compensation for 



123 

his defeat in that endeavor, I think we are entitled to hear something 
from the college to-night. I will call upon its president — Rev. Dr. 
Porter. 

ADDRESS OF REV. NOAH PORTER. 

There are several reasons why I feel that I ought to 
respond to the invitation to be present on this occasion and 
address you. From my earliest childhood I seem to have 
been a member of the Center Church in Hartford. Hartford 
was the Jerusalem to which the tribes came up from the 
country round, and the Center Church was their magnifi- 
cent temple. Dr. Hawes was often at my father's house, 
and I recollect the stories he told that made the history of 
the church in the last century seem perfectly familiar to me, 
and made me regard this church as almost the nucleus of the 
greatest and most comprehensive interests in the world. It 
was one of the greatest blessings to have been taught to 
believe that the interests of the Kingdom of God were the 
greatest interests a man could care for. In my earliest boy- 
hood this church was the only one of any pretensions in this 
city. Christ Church was an humble wooden structure, and 
the South Church was an old-fashioned meeting-house almost 
buried in the sand. Later in life, as I have frequently made 
the trip from Boston to Hartford I have often asked myself 
where did this company of Hooker's lodge night after night 
on their way from Boston to Springfield. Was it at Natick, 
and Worcester, and Brookfield, and Warren, and Wilbraham, 
and Springfield, and how did they comedown herefrom thence 
by the lovely Connecticut meadows ? I have asked these 
questions because I had learned that it was more than the 
First Church that came with that memorable company. 
The ark those emigrants brought with them was more than 
the ark of this church. What we commemorate to-day is 
the Hooker spirit which then began to move and has ever 
since been marching on. Hooker aspired to be more than 
the pastor of a church ; he aspired to be the founder of a 
colony. The colony he founded is the parent of the many 



124 

others derived from these Connecticut settlers, as they have 
gone out to the ends of the earth. 

For where has not the Connecticut emigration gone ? 
And where is it not to be found ? What it has carried is 
due to what Hartford was and what John Davenport con- 
tributed from New Haven. Where are its representatives 
not found ? Where are its enterprise and industry unknown ? 
Where is there a town in all our wide land without its insur- 
ance agent ? 

We are proud also to know that where Hartford is repre- 
sented, there the fame of the Center Church, its zeal, its 
liberality, and its public spirit are known. It is not unrea- 
sonable, then, to commemorate these first beginnings as we do 
this day, for not in Hartford alone is this anniversary 
memorable. The history of this church, as told here to-day, 
is indeed, as we must confess, a history of strife, and the 
story seems at times sad and depressing. But those who have 
related this history have of necessity said all too little of the 
brighter and more cheering sides in the moving and coura- 
geous lives of the devoted men and women whose faith and 
heroism are worthy all recollection. The outcome of these 
strifes has been progress in every particular in which the 
church should make progress — in the spiritual life and its 
application to daily duties, in its conception of man's obliga- 
tion to his fellow man here and every where, and of his 
spiritual advances toward God. 

Not one of us perhaps would now receive the dogmas of 
the old catechisms were they to be presented for our accept- 
ance. But this would not imply that they did not contain 
the same gospel that is preached to-day, but that in all those 
catechisms and creeds there abound scholastic interpreta- 
tions due to the theology of the schools. Progress here is 
not only our glory but it is our highest commendation. 

As we recount this history we see too that the same ques- 
tions return generation after generation, and are answered 
better in each successive year. We deplore the strife and 
loss, but we have come to know by slow experience that in 



125 

many things Congregational Churches may agree to differ — 
and be charitable. In this, as in other particulars, the Center 
Church has set a good example. Dr. Hawes strove to recon- 
cile charity and justice, to the truth, and he strove success- 
fully. 

A few years ago, at Oxford, I was asked by one of the 
professors in that ancient university, to what branch of the 
Church of Christ I belonged. I replied, to the Congrega- 
tional, the mother church of New England. With all its 
advantages and all its durabilities the Congregational 
Churches have occupied this place in New England from the 
first, and pre-eminently in Connecticut. Every town in Con- 
necticut is in some sense a bud of the original germ from 
which the original township derived its growth. With the 
end of this two and a half centuries it becomes us to look 
around and inquire whether we still believe in that simple 
polity resting as it* does upon the Christian principles of 
comprehensive charity, and earnest consecration, which the 
genius of our system has taught us to hold and ought to 
teach us to exemplify. 



Mr. Cone said : Cambridge was not only the place where Thomas 
Hooker first landed and this church was organized, but four of its pas- 
tors were educated at Harvard. 1 believe Rev. Edward Everett Hale is 
one of its trustees and perhaps is otherwise connected with the univer- 
sity. We should be glad to hear from him. 

ADDRESS OF EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 

The officers and graduates of Harvard College will be 
glad to know that they are remembered in your festival. It 
is impossible to go back into our early history at Cambridge, 
without coming upon the traces of that history, still earlier, 
of your church which Dr. Walker has traced along for us in 
that address which has so fascinated us to-day. I have been 
tempted to ask, indeed, whether the reason for establishing 



126 

Harvard College at Cambridge, were not the desire to fill 
the blank which was left there, when such a candlestick as 
the church of Hooker and Stone was removed. This is 
certain, that Hooker's distance from Cambridge did not 
diminish his interest in the establishment of the college : 
and it would seem that he was consulted in regard to the 
plans for it when, in 1637 he returned to Cambridge and 
served as moderator of the Synod. Dr. Walker has told us 
that the first four ministers of your church, after the death 
of Stone, were our graduates. Of this we have reason to 
be proud. But we are even more proud that our children 
had the power to carry forward on new soil the work which 
Cambridge saw begun. For it is only two generations after 
the planting of Hartford, that in that celebrated meeting of 
the ten ministers who founded Yale College in 1700, you find 
nine Harvard names of men eager to establish here also the 
highest and best education. So that Harvard may take all 
the satisfaction of a grandmother as she observes that the 
First Church, so soon as Connecticut had a college of her own, 
took her pastors from those who were home-bred ; the fruits 
of the college which the ten famous ministers established at 
New Haven. 

If we look outside the annals of this church into the 
larger history of this State of Connecticut, whose birthday 
also we are celebrating, we see, from the very beginning, that 
that history exhibits in concrete and visible form the appli- 
cation, both on the largest and on the smallest scale, of the 
Principles which Hooker stands for and which this church 
represents. Does any one ask how it happened that all the 
territory in the Bay, now occupied by the towns of Cam- 
bridge, Brighton, and Newton, was two narrow for Hooker 
and his congregation and their cattle, — the answer is clear 
enough to any one who remembers what Hooker was and 
what he taught. It is confessed frankly enough by Hub- 
bard in his history, that " after Mr. Hooker's coming over it 
was observed that many of the freemen grew to be jealous 
of their liberties." Jealous of their liberties ! There was 



127 

plenty of room for the cattle, but there was not room 
enough for the people. It is clear enough to anybody who 
will read Hooker's friendly correspondence with Winthrop, 
that the removal of this candlestick from the Bay to this 
river, is the friendly but positive assertion of absolute Repub- 
licanism ; or, if you please, of pure Democracy. The notion 
that " all the people are wiser than any one of the people," 
the notion that Government is to be " of the people, for the 
people, by the people," is foreshadowed in the epigrams of 
Hooker, and it is clear enough that Haynes came to share 
such sentiments. Now, what is more interesting than any 
antiquarian discovery of an early proclamation of such 
opinions as theories, is the steady and determined way in 
which the Republic of Connecticut, which from such senti- 
ments was born, has, in the detail of daily life carried them 
out, even for the whole country, among all sorts and con- 
ditions of men, and in every range of public or of private 
affairs. 

I do not know how many of those in this audience may 
have seen an old-fashioned paper of English pins. Such a 
paper of pins had on it the announcement that it was made 
by So and So, " Pin-maker to His Majesty." When a 
Connecticut pin-maker issues his paper of pins, he puts 
upon it the words "Pin-maker to the Universe." That epi- 
gram, — meant for a joke, — expresses exactly the work which 
this State has taken in hand, from the beginning: — the work 
which I call democracy in the concrete or in practice. It is 
the extending to the rank and file, — to the humblest of the 
people, — the privileges which had belonged to monarchs, or 
to a hierarchy. I remember perfectly what was the first 
impression I had as a child, of this city. It was in riding in 
the least settled part of Massachusetts. Passing some little 
house, far separated from any neighbor, a house perhaps of 
the smallest and cheapest, I saw the little tin plate which 
announced that it was " insured at Hartford." You know, 
sir, that I should travel far indeed on the frontier of this 
nation, before I should go farther than the agents of Hart- 



128 

ford insurance have gone. What is that work, — the work by 
which Connecticut gives to the poorest of squatters the 
same confidence and security which princes have in their 
palaces, — but the extension to each and all of the people, 
of the privilege which before belonged to wealth alone. It 
is not that Connecticut invents insurance. The history of 
insurance runs far back in history ; and, like most things in 
modern history which are good for much, it was born of one 
of the organizations of the Christian church. But the mak- 
ing it universal, — that is the democratic Connecticut idea, — 
the giving to the poorest and weakest, what had been given 
only to the strongest and the richest. And, if I rightly 
understand the genius of Connecticut, the translation into 
practice of this idea is at the bottom of all of her greatest 
successes. By making the settler in Oregon join hands 
with the nabob in New York, for the insurance of who shall 
say how many homes between sunrise and sunset, the men 
who worked out the popularising of insurance carried into 
practice Hooker's epigrams, which meant only that we should 
bear each other's burdens and so fulfill Christ's law. 

Just the same principle underlies every successful effort 
which Connecticut has made for education. Your schools 
have succeeded when you worked on this principle, and 
they have failed if you ever abandoned it. Some twenty 
years ago, I knew somewhat intimately a gentleman whom 
the French Emperor had sent through America to study our 
system of public education. He traversed Canada first, and 
then the Western and Middle States, and came last of all to 
New England. Everywhere he found that the teachers of 
the schools, higher and lower, came from Connecticut and 
from Massachusetts. " The thing has no parallel in history," 
he said to me. " Never in history shall you read, that two small 
provinces furnish the teachers for all the rest of a nation." 
When he asked for statistics of the matter no one could tell 
him. "When I come to Connecticut and Massachusetts," 
he said, " I shall learn. They will know how many of their 
sons and daughters are teaching in the schools of other 



129 

States. And now I come here," said he, " nobody cares for it 
one straw." That was true enough. People here took it for 
granted that every son or daughter who went to the West or 
to the South, knew enough to be a teacher in the schools, 
if there were occasion. That is to say, education had not 
been a privilege of this class of clerics, or that class of 
noblemen. It was the right of all sorts and conditions of 
men. 

And this goes much farther than the mere distribution of 
teachers to the land. There are better teachers than school- 
masters. ' Who but your Hartford publishers invented and 
carried out the system of the popular distribution of books, 
which carries to the log-cabin the book which in old times 
was the luxury of the palace ? Abraham Lincoln read by a 
pine knot light half a dozen of the master-pieces of English 
literature. How did he have those books to read ? I do not 
know. But any man who knows America, and the frontier 
of that day, knows the agency by which he attained them 
directly or indirectly. It was from the hands of the much 
ridiculed, and never yet sufficiently extolled, Connecticut 
peddler ; the mediator between civilization and barbarism ; the 
agent of this same determination which is latent in the 
aphorism of Hooker that the settler in his log-cabin shall 
enjoy, if he will, the best luxuries of the prince born in the 
purple. Let me make my own personal acknowledgment. 
It was when I was a student of divinity, who counted twice 
every penny of expenses, that a Connecticut book-agent sold 
me for a dollar that Vade Mecum of poor Cruden which he 
could not publish without the patronage of Queen Caroline. 
" Indispensable to ministers." " It should be in everybody's 
library." This is what the high and mighty critics say. 
Yes. But how is it to come into " everybody's library" under 
the hierarchical and aristocratic methods of publishing of 
old times. That it shall be in everybody's library you need 
what I call democracy in the concrete : as it was exemplified 
first by the men of Connecticut to mankind. 

But in such illustrations, sir, I am trespassing upon 
17 



130 

ground which is much better known by the practical men 
who sit before me. Any one of them would tell us that the 
reason why the city of Hartford is, in proportion to its 
numbers, the richest city in the world, is this, — that the 
industries of Hartford and the commerce of Hartford have 
adapted themselves always to the needs not only of the richest 
and highest, but of the poorest and weakest of God's children 
as well. There is not the corner of the world to which their 
manufactures do not penetrate, — there is no class in social 
order but is, in the long run, elevated by their courage, 
promptness, and ingenuity. It is in this spirit of those early 
aphorisms of Hooker that your legislation first brought out 
that ingenious system of copartnership by which, under a 
general statute, limited companies of men may unite without 
difficulty for any designated purpose of manufacture. The 
success of that legislation of Connecticut has led to the 
adoption of that principle, not simply in all the industrial 
States of this Union, but in the industrial legislation of the 
world. It is fair to say that in that solution of the problem 
of co-operative industry, the legislation of Connecticut led 
the way for the world. The principle was older. The 
Connecticut legislator of this century could have found it 
stated in the words of Governor Haynes, or in these letters 
of Thomas Hooker. Thomas Hooker had learned it when 
St. Paul taught him that we are to " bear one another's 
burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." It is that principle 
which, when it expresses itself in political organization comes 
out in the government of the people for the people, by the 
people. It makes real in the concrete the central statement 
of the religion of Jesus Christ. 



131 



Mr. Cone said: Hon. John Hooker, a worthy descendant of the 
first pastor of this Church, we hoped to have heard to-night, that 
we might from this living link imbibe somewhat of the spirit of his 
ancestor, Rev. Thomas Hooker. His health does not permit him to 
be here, but I will call upon his son, Dr. Edward B. Hooker. 

He said : 

It is a matter of regret that Mr. Hooker is not here to say 
himself the word that should be spoken by a descendant of 
Thomas Hooker. But as it is fitting on this occasion that 
some one bearing the family name should speak, to me a few 
hours ago was relegated the privilege of saying a few words. 

And the thought that comes to me, after laying flowers on 
our ancestor's grave, after contemplating the shaft raised to 
the memory of the noble men who came with him and on 
which is inscribed their names, after listening to the address 
of the afternoon, is this : While honoring the fathers from 
whom we have come we must not forget the mothers. They 
alike braved the dangers and endured the privations of that 
early time ; their earnest prayers and cheering words sustained 
the men in hours of distress and gloom. 

That courageous woman, borne tenderly on a litter, too 
weak to walk or ride, too brave to be left behind, may well 
be compared to the Ark of the Covenant which the children 
of Israel bore with them in their journey through the wilder- 
ness to the promised land. She was really a sacred emblem 
of all that was pure and holy. And the women founders of 
New England, unknown to fame, were really the conservators 
of the purity and spirituality of the church and society, and 
to them we owe as great a debt as to the grand men whom 
history loves to commemorate and honor. 

Let us therefore honor our fathers and our mothers, that 
our days may be long upon the land which the Lord our God 
hath given us ! 

Filled with the same thought, my father, unable to be 
present, has sent me these lines to read : 



132 

THE WOMEN FOUNDERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Ye grand men of our early day, 
Who here for freedom made a way, 
With faith and prayer and quoten Word, 
Yet coat of mail and girded sword ; 
Who laid in strength the founded State, 
And o'er it sat to legislate ; 
And oft in magistracy stood 
Before th' admiring multitude ; 
Who felt th' inspiring sense of power 
And thrill of the victorious hour ; 
And saw afar that grateful fame 
Would cherish every hero's name ; 
— The schoolboy at his lesson reads 
. Th' inspiring record of your deeds ; 
The public eye on canvas sees 
Your conflicts fierce and victories ; 
The monumental shaft is reared 
To keep your names for aye revered. 

But there were hearts of purest gold 
Whose tale of courage ne'er was told ; 
True heroes, who no armor wore, 
Yet shared the perils that ye bore ; 
Braving, with courage none the less, 
The savage and the wilderness ; 
Clothed with no power in church or state, 
No word in worship or debate ; 
With faith-lit brow and helping hand, 
Asking but by your side to stand ; 
Who had no hope a later day 
Its tribute of renown would pay ; 
Who made their sad self-sacrifice 
Before no world's admiring eyes ; 
Of men's remembrance thinking not, 
Content to toil and be forgot. 

Ah, when the heroes of that time 
Are numbered on God's book sublime, 
High on the roll of that true fame 
Many a gentle woman's name, 
Which earth had cared not to record, 
Shall stand writ Valiant for the Lord. 



Friday Morning. 



THE MEETING-HOUSES OF THE FIRST CHURCH. 

BY ROWLAND SWIFT. 

The founders of our beloved Church built their first house 
of worship at Newtown almost a year before the date which 
we recognize as the birthday of the organization. Immedi- 
ately after their arrival in 1632, "Mr. Hooker's company" 
proceeded by order of court from Mount Wollaston to New- 
town. But few actual settlers had preceded them ; these but 
by a few months, and to but little purpose. The earliest 
records of the town bear date of the 29th of March before, 
but there is, I believe, no evidence of public religious service 
having been held before their appearance upon the ground, 
and our ancestors found matters altogether not yet vigor- 
ously in progress towards the establishment and development 
of the ideal Christian community. 

But their immediate task seemed appointed already, as if 
the spirit of the absent Hooker prompted them to it, and as 
eagerly as they hastened to spread a sheltering roof over 
their wives and babes, they wrought to prepare a house for 
religious and public service ; and so diligently that it was 
completed within the remaining months of the year. 

Of this pioneer structure but few particulars, either of 
historical or architectural interest, can be confidently asserted. 
There is but rare and indifferent mention of it to be met 
with in the literature of the time. Sessions of the General 
Court were in the early days often convened here. Within 
it we know were gathered upon memorable occasions the 
"teaching elders through the country and others sent by the 
churches" who constituted the famous Synods of 1637 and 
1647. Here was the birthplace of the Cambridge Platform ; 
and before that interesting date the fame of the Cambridge 



136 

preacher had made the house a place of sacred resort from 
all the region about — to the conscientious Winthrop himself 
among many others who, on one occasion, felt it necessary to 
protest in his own behalf, "though the governour did very 
seldom go from his own congregation upon the Lord's day." 
As an architectural affair it was not grand. Of its actual 
dimensions we have scarcely a suggestion, except from subse- 
quent data and some plausible comparisons which give us 
ideas about the facts. 

The few buildings of its kind of the first decade of New 
England church history were, no doubt, very uniform as to 
size; and if this were no larger than that built at Dedham 
in 1638* it could be placed erect before me upon this floor 
between this pulpit and the third columns on the right and 
left and within these galleries, with room for a good generous 
pair of doorsteps at the front and either side included. We 
may infer, too, that this is not an unreasonable estimate 
of its size, and that it did not much exceed this, if at all, 
because it became much too small in a few years, after the 
Hartford emigration, and after another church had been 
gathered, so that to meet later requirements for space, pro- 
posals to repair, were, in 1649, defeated, and another edifice 
was ordered and built, and this successor would extend in 
length to cover only the space just now given, with only a 
width contained inside the lines of the north and south aisles. 

We can only with difficulty appreciate the necessary 
simplicity and rudeness of its construction and finish. The 
edifice for the Boston and Charlcstown congregation, built 
in the same year, is said to have had mud walls and a 
thatched roof, but this one doubtless was built of logs, the 
roof covered with riven boards; thatch having been prohibited 
by agreement.! The windows were of a cheerless model ; 
little apertures for admission of light, perhaps covered with 

*36 feet in length, by 23 feet in width. — Dr. Lanison, Cent. Dis., 1838. 

i "Further it is agreed that all houses within the bounds of the town shall 
be covered [with] slate or board, and not with thatch." — Camb. Town Rec, 
Jan. 7, 1622-3. Paige, p. 18. 



137 

linen or other semi-transparency rather than glass, and it is 
very questionable whether they were not for the most part 
left open altogether, and the entrance also; for Johnson says 
of the habitations of the neighborhood, "They had scarce 
houses to shelter themselves, and no doors to hinder the 
Indians access to all they had in them.* 

An episode of one of the sessions of the Synod of 164S 
does not indicate much advance or improvement in this 
regard for the next fifteen years, and may suggest not inap- 
propriate estimates of the completeness or incompleteness 
of the joinery about the house, and incidentally some ideas 
of other things as well. The Rev. Mr. Allen of Dedham was 
preaching before the Synod and, according to our relator, 
"a very godly, learned, and particular handling of near all 
the doctrines and applications concerning that subject, with 
a clear discovery and refutation of such errors, objections, 
and scruples as had been raised about it by some young 
heads in the country. It fell out about the midst of his 
sermon there came a snake into the seat where many of the 
elders sate behind the preacher. It came in at the door 
where people stood thick upon the stairs. Divers of the 
elders shifted from it, but Mr. Thompson, one of the elders 
of Braintree (a man of much faith), trode upon the head of 
it and so held it with his foot and staff with a small pair 
of grains until it was killed. This being so remarkable 
and nothing falling out but by divine providence it is out of 
doubt the Lord discovered somewhat of his mind in it. The 
serpent is the devil ; the Synod the representative of the 
churches of Christ in New England. The devil had formerly 
and lately attempted their disturbance and dissolution, but 
their faith in the seed of the woman overcame him and crushed 
his head." Governor Winthrop, whose words I have given 
you verbatim, adds immediately: " The Synod went on com- 
fortably" — and whether his remark refers to ensuing discus- 
sions or deliverance from further snakish or satanic intrusions 
we must take his word for it, and believe as well as we can 

* Wonder Working Providence: Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. xiii, 138. 
18 



138 

that at least during the parts of the years when synods met, 
it was, in some respects, a "comfortable" house. 

Of course there were no galleries ; there was not height 
to admit them. Scarcely was there a suggestion of the pul- 
pit of the days to come — how could there be ? There was 
no ceiling or plaster ; no place for a fire ; it was not time for 
this by almost two hundred years, and if the necessity had 
been found the broad wooden chimneys, such as were used 
in their little dwellings would not have answered here, and 
neither lime or brick with which to build others, tiles or glass 
were made in the vicinity for about eight years to come ; not 
so soon as Stephen Day's printing presses were at work in 
the town. These were established there in 1638.* There 
were only rugged and comfortless benches for seats ; the old- 
time pews being luxuries or miseries of much later date ; and 
still, as if there were luxury in some way associated with 
what was accounted a propriety they were by authority desig- 
nated for occupancy according to the dignity of persons, 
families, or estates ; the deacon's seat, no more restful or 
elegant than that of the magistrate or of others, you may be 
sure, was declared by a writer of the period to be " the most, 
eminent place in the church next under the elders' seats."f 

This, our first bouse of worship, has not in any vestige 
known to the eye of man survived its century. We may 
make the most flattering construction of every hint of histo- 
rian or poet regarding it, and gain hardly anything to enhance 
or beautify the contracted and rough picture of it. The 
imagination cools under the contemplation of such difficult 
worship as only would seem to be possible in a place so bar- 
ren of modern or ancient accessories or in the rigorous 
atmosphere of the winter's Sabbath day. Not here, indeed, 
you think would have been born the inspiration that wrote : 

" My willing soul would stay 
In such a frame as this, 
And sit and sing herself away 
To everlasting bliss ! " 

* Mass. Hist. Col., vi, 376-7. f Mass. Hist. Col., xxiii, 76. 



139 

But you will remember it was not always winter. Vernal 
glories were ordained to dissipate and supplant the charm of 
the frosts. Summer came in her time to hallow the conse- 
crated shades till autumn suns shining through the ripening 
leaves and fruits helped to make the way hither inviting, and 
the repose and the praise of this dear sanctuary joyous and 
tranquilizing as if here were the very gate of heaven. It 
was the cradle of our infant church. It was the cradle of 
the Connecticut Commonwealth. Summer and winter, while 
our fathers were there it was radiant with the glow of devout 
worship, and happy with the delicious intensity of their first 
tastes of freedom in worship ! 

At any rate, through four most dreary winters ; through 
the three more hospitable summers that intervened, they 
had their holy assemblies under this roof ; where, upon the 
peaked summit that covered them, they hung, in 1632, the first 
New England church bell,* and, save one at Jamestown, Va., 
I have failed to find so early record of any other within the 
territory now included in the United States. f 

This bell, it seems, must have followed the migrating church 
in 1636, and doubtless was the one which first sounded from 
the first meeting-house at Hartford. Certain it is that in 
the year of the removal it was no longer to be heard at New- 
town, and a drum had been substituted for it, $ and not till 



* In this year (1632) is built the first house for public worship at Newtown 
(after called Cambridge) with a bell upon it. — Prince, ii, 75. 

" That every person undersubscribed shall (meet) every first Monday in every 
month within the meeting-houses in the afternoon within half (an hour) after 
the ringing of the bell." — Cambridge Records, Dec. 24, 1632. Paige, p. 17. 

f For reference to this old Jamestown bell, see Purchas, His Pilgrims : Lon- 
don, 1725, vol. iv, p. 1748, in Wm. Strachy's " A true reportory of the wracke 
and redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight vpon and from the Islands of 
the Bermudas, his coming to Virginia," &c. : " From Hence in two days, (only by 
the helpe of Tydes, no winde stirring) wee plyed it sadly vp the River and the 
three and twentieth of May, 161c we cast Anchor before lames Towne where 
we landed and our much grieued Gouernour first visiting the church caused the 
Bell to be rung, at which (all such as were able to come forth of their houses) 
repayred to church." 

\ Johnson, Wonder Working Providence, p. 103. 



140 

1648 do we hear of another one at Cambridge.* Mr. Hooker's 
company, who doubtless brought it with them at the first, 
prized it too highly, we must conclude, to leave it behind them 
in Massachusetts. They had been at great pains to bring it 
there. Its sweet call out to the wilds about their first settle- 
ment they had prayed might be " as the voice of one crying 
in the wilderness," while every vibration from it had brought 
to their dwellings precious and often very sad memories of 
their dear forsaken land and their dear Sabbaths beyond the 
seas ! 

The first beginnings of the new town on the Connecticut 
centered closely around another, their second house of worship, 
— planned before the removal of any of their number, — 
placed very nearly to the extreme southeast corner of the 
present Post-office square, and as in the former instance at 
Cambridge, this building, such as it was, doubtless adapted 
only for temporary use, appears to have been made ready 
before the arrival of the pastor upon the ground. 

From the brief and harrowing data relating to the first im- 
migration hither, dating 1635, an ^ the return to Cambridge of 
the greater part of the immigrants in midwinter, we are hardly 
prepared to expect from the annals of -that half year very 
much that reads like the establishment of civil and religious 
order. Nevertheless, the old and original record of our town 
fixes the date of 1635 to an ordinance which assumes a great 
deal, and proceeds as follows : " It is ordered that there shall 

be a guard of men to attend with arms fixed and two 

shot of powder and shot at least at every public meeting for 
religious use ; with two sergeants to oversee the same and 
to keep out one of them sentinel at every meeting ; and the 
said guard to be freed from warding and to have seats pro- 
vided near the meeting-house door ; and the sergeant to 

* Ordered, that there shall be an eight penny ordinary provided for the towns- 
men every second Monday of the month upon their meeting day and that 
whosoever of the townsmen fail to be present within half an hour of the ring- 
ing of the bell he shall both lose his dinner and pay a pint of sack or the value 
to the present townsmen. — Camb. Rec, 1648. 



141 

repair to the magistrate for a warrant for the due execution 
thereof." So then, haply, you may vary the scene somewhat 
as you think of that forlorn remnant of the company who 
spent the first winter at Hartford, and of their extremities 
of need and discouragement in that most disconsolate season 
and condition, for the picture of your dark dream takes on 
a better and a more cheerful perspective, does it not ? even 
with the homely and rigid profile, if you please, of that little 
house of hope drawn out upon the expanse of the snow-can- 
vas ed forest ! 

Then again, a page further on in the story, when the sum- 
mer had opened and carpeted and shaded the highways for 
them, and, their journey accomplished, the tired and strag- 
gling caravan from Massachusetts approached at last by the 
meadow side, and yonder on the farthest knoll were met by 
those few of their former number who had preceded them 
in the early spring, or had waited for them through the long 
suspense and famine of that winter, and by them, with shouts 
and tears of gladdest thanksgiving, were guided and hurried 
to the opening this way to show them where now their 
dwelling was to be, you may, I think, fairly enough believe 
that as their curious vision sped eagerly to and fro over the 
near landscape of this Canaan they had reached, they would 
recall it with a real and reverent satisfaction to rest where 
their lowly new sanctuary — reared in the midst of the few 
habitations already projected, venerated, I dare say, as a pil- 
lar of consecration — greeted and invited them as " the shadow 
of a great rock in a weary land." 

This edifice, if even more primitive than the former one at 
Newtown, was devoted to religious and other public uses for 
most of the time until 1640-1, though some historical refer- 
ences to it have been somewhat indefinite and sometimes con- 
fusing. In " Genealogical Notes," by the late Nathaniel 
Goodwin of this city, is reproduced from the town records of 
Stratford, Conn., a statement of the Rev. John Higginson, 
to the effect that "in the beginning of the year 1638, in the 
last week in March," Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Goodwin, being 



142 

employed to treat with Indians in the southwestern portion 
of the State, he, Mr. Higginson, was sent with them as an 
interpreter, and with them and two Indians selected for the 
purpose, came to Hartford in pursuance of matters connected 
with their negotiations, " and not long after there was a com- 
mittee in Mr. Hooker's barn, the meeting-house then not 
buylded." This statement was recorded many years after 
the visit spoken of, and is not inconsistent with the apparent 
fact that this first meeting-house, which in time came to be 
Mr. Hooker's barn, and as such was popularly known and 
remembered, still served its former uses while the new 
second one was in progress, if in progress at this date; the 
latter perhaps not quite apparent, certainly not in Mr. Hig- 
ginson's memory at the time of this relation. It does not 
seem to disturb the identity of the structure to which I have 
referred as the first house of worship in Hartford any more 
than does the following reference in the records of the Gen- 
eral Court, showing its use in part for storage by the com- 
monwealth during and after the Pequot war, and dated 
April 5, 1638 : " It is thought meete that the Costlets that were 
in the last service shall be made good to the Commonwealth 
and made as good serviceable as before, and that Richard 
Lord shall take such Costlets into his custody as are in the 
meeting-house of Harteford and make them vpp." 

In the beginning of the year 1639 we suppose we hear 
reliably from the bell which was missed at Cambridge — as 
has been noted — in 1636. The Colonial Records* preserve 
a judgment of the General Court rendered at that time, 
condemning two culprits "to be whipt att a Carts [tail] upon 
a lecture day in Hartford ... to stand vppon the pillory from 
the ringing of the first bell to the end of the lecture then to 
be whipt." It is natural to infer that the bell was upon the 
meeting-house then in use, and what had been much called 
the first one, as in both the consecration sermon of the Rev. 
Daniel Wadsworth in 1739 and in that of Dr. Strong in 1807 
was not yet, for two years at least, finished, if actually begun. 

* Vol. i, p. 28. 



143 

If commenced (and Mr. Wads worth says built) in 1638, it 
progressed by such stages as the circumstances of the not 
then wealthy or populous church and town allowed. It was 
larger and was quite different in model from the one it was to 
replace ; was a frame structure * and in various details appro- 
priated with seemly order, furnished for its day quite an 
advanced type of colonial church building. The day for the 
clay-filled log walls was passed, and the name of goodman 
Post stands by the records bounden to the townsmen of 1640 
to furnish veritable clapboards and to cover it at $s. 6d. the 
hundred, and the roof, although no mention of the fact 
appears, was doubtless' covered with clapboards also, if not 
with shingles. It may well be doubted whether thatch was 
used upon the roof of the former building, for you will 
remember that at Newtown they discarded it by agreement 
at the very outset. 

With studious care now that the ornate and costly style 
which had been left behind in the old country should not 
reappear to foster ecclesiastical pride, the architectural lines 
were allowed to vary a little for the sake of shelter at the 
entrance in stormy weather, even if there should be a pleas- 
ant gain in effect thereby, and the goodman Pantry, the 
records say, was to be negotiated to agreement with the 
townsmen of 1641 as to the construction of the porch, the 
necessary workmen therefor, their pay also "such as the 
country affords." 

It is likely that as soon as this house was covered so as to 
afford reasonable shelter, and was tolerably furnished within, 
it was occupied, occasionally at least, for religious service. 
We are unable to say just when it was at first so occupied, but 
before the 1 ith of February, 164 1-2, it was so far completed as 
to be relied upon entirely for the future, and at that date, it was 
by the town "ordered that the old meeting-house shall be 
given to Mr. Hooker." This vote, if it does not mark the 
exact time of the occupancy of the new structure, at least 

* One order of later date provides for " new ground sills." 



144 

settles the question as to the numerical relation of the two. 
This, the third edifice of our church, the second at Hartford, 
was located very near to the present site of our post-office, to 
the southeast of it a little, and between it and the location of 
its predecessor probably. It had been prepared at great 
charges, we may fairly say, if we have due regard and esti- 
mate of the numbers and wealth of the colony, and from the 
few details that are hinted, we must conceive the outlay for 
its construction to have been comparatively liberal, and as 
had been the recorded habit of this people in their former 
operations, fully up to the times, to say the least. It had 
been brought so far towards completion in the face of diffi- 
culties which we can never fully understand, and was pat- 
terned too, upon ideas somewhat refined, from those which 
dominated in the architectural designs of the first years of 
the colonies. 

Circumstances had before limited the outlay to such a 
structure as should afford only the plainest accommodation 
to their simple worship, and the present limitations indeed 
enlarged upon this idea, to. be appreciated only by rather 
minute comparisons. The covering of the exterior indeed, 
as we have seen, was more comely ; a decent flooring within ; 
widows not of very ample capacity, but more numerous and 
with glass ; doors that gave more comfortable and secure 
enclosure, and seats that had perhaps a little more finish if 
not any more ease about them. 

But, as it proved, it was erected for a century, and many 
improved and changed and added appointments within and 
without must await the progress of the century, and the 
advancing taste and determination of its new generations. 
For the present it was supposed to be ready. The well 
traveled old bell now securely and more permanently hung, 
this time again in a turret * upon the apex of the roof, to be 

* This turret was remodeled at a later date. William Davenport relaid the 
floor of it in 1704, and renders an account of expenditures therefor, and "for 
calking and pitching" it, and "for setting up the speere & vain and other 
work to it." 



145 

rung from the middle of the interior below — would invite the 
waiting congregation to the new sanctuary. 

And to the new sanctuary the waiting congregation would 
come, but how should this free and pious people range them- 
selves there with proper respect to each other, for their stated 
worship before Him who is no respecter of persons ? Places 
were by common consent and deference fixed for the 
Governor or the magistrates and various civil dignitaries, 
while those for the elders and those next exalted for the 
deacons, to which, with all due solemnity the weekly offerings 
of the congregation were brought and deposited,* were of 
uniform appointment ; but can we conceive of the perplexity 
and disappointment that sometimes followed the endeavors 
by authority to place everybody else appropriately ? By a 
vote of the town meeting, assembled 13th March, 1641, John 
White, John Pratt, Rich'd Goodman, and Joseph Mygatt, 
who were townsmen (selectmen) for the time being, were 
ordered and empowered " to appoint seats in the meeting- 
house for religious service," and, so far as we know, these 
good men had the grace and address to do their delicate work 
well. It was, however, a requirement upon public servants 
of other years and localities and congregations that brought 
varied dissatisfaction and resentments, and sometimes rebel- 
lion, as is witnessed in more than one New England town by 
recorded votes of similar import to this at Stratham, N. H. ; 



*The contribution box, in the earliest times, had a different place and service 
from the present order — which was retained until past the middle of the 18th 
century in most of the N. E. churches, and commonly at the close of the 
service every Sabbath afternoon, " One of the deacons saying : ' Brethren of 
the congregation, now there is time left for contribution, wherefore as God hath 
prospered you so freely offer.' Upon some extraordinary occasions, as build- 
ing or repairing of meeting-houses, or other necessitie, the Ministers presse a 
liberal! contribution with effectuall exhortations out of Scripture. 
The Magistrates and Clergymen first and then the elders, and all come up one 
after another one way and bring their offering to the Deacon in his seat and 
put it into a box of wood for the purpose if it bee money or papers ; if it be 
any other chattle they set it or lay it downe before the Deacon and so passe 
another way to their seats again. But in Salem Church those only that are of 
the church offer in public ; the rest are required to give to the Ministerie by 
collection at their houses. " — Trios. Letchford, 1641. Mass. Hist Coll., 23, 77, 8. 
19 



146 

that " Every person that is seated shall Set in those Seates 
or pay five shillings Pir day for every day they set out of 
those seats in a disorderly manner to advaince themselves 
higher in the meeting-house." It is not improbable, from 
what appears further on, that at some times there were 
symptoms of the usual discontent here, but probably our 
forefathers and their consorts and families were saved, for the 
present at least, from these unhappy questionings by the 
presence of more serious exercises of mind. 

The consideration of personal safety invaded the house of 
God. It sometimes appears to have been put' aside, however, 
by the congregation, notwithstanding the admonitions and 
mandates of their guardians. It was ordered by the court 
in 1642 "that there shall be a gard of forty men to com 
compleate in their arms to the meeting eury sabbath and 
lecture day in every town,"* and in Oct., 1643, "to p r uent or 
w th stand such sudden assaults as may be made by Indeans 
vppon the Sabboth or lecture days, It is Ordered that one p'son 
in euery seuerall howse wherein is any souldear or souldears 
shall bring a muskett, pystoll, or some peece w th powder and 
shott to ech meeting;" and the next month for neglect of the 
latter a penalty of twelve pence was provided, one-half to 
the informer and one half " to the country." * 

We nowhere find any figures that certainly indicate the 
original dimensions of the building. They would not vary 
materially from the apparent rule among contemporary 
structures, and the largest of its class and time ranged from 
40 by 40 feet, to 40 by 50 feet upon the ground. Dr. Dexter 
gives the latter figure as the average among forty edifices 
erected between the years 1653 and 1812, f while one built 
at Medford, Mass , as late as 1695-6, was but 30 by 27 feet. 

It was not long before enlarged capacity was sought, and 
numerous recorded orders of the town from time to time 
mark some of the successive additions and improvements. 
Feb. 3, 1644, "a gallery with stairs, to be built with con- 
venient speed; " Feb. 11, 1660-1, another gallery designated 
for the east side; and Feb. 17, 1664-5, another still war 

* Col. Rec. Conn., vol. i, pp. 73, 95, 96. t Cong. Quarterly, vol. i, p. 186. 



147 

voted, and although specifications are wanting, they do not 
appear to be duplicates, and without doubt occupied three 
sides of the interior, leaving the west for the pulpit, a quite 
unpretentious piece of furniture at first, and so far as we 
know rather barren of superficial adornments for many years. 

In your ancient book of records an account is to be found 
which records an expenditure of £2 14s. 6d. sterling, "for a 
Plush Cushin, a greene Cloth, and Silke for the fringes and 
Tasseles of s d Cushion." A porch " with stairs up into the 
chamber " (afterward more often called the Court Chamber) 
had been ordered February 8, 1650, supposably to be placed 
at the opposite end of the house from that which was ordered 
ten years before, and it would seem that this chamber, thus 
to be made more conveniently accessible, might have adjoined 
the gallery of 1664-5, which gallery was "for the enlarge- 
ment of the room in said meeting-house." Nearest about 
the north door were the seats provided "for the guard" which, 
after a time, were ordered to be raised above those about 
them — and appropriately too ; for if the stalwart guard, as 
time went on were less in danger of surprise from the roving 
savages, their peace was harrowed and their tact and vigilance 
kept at a lively tension by an ever present and mischievous 
few who won frequent notice and care from them and from 
the law makers of the town when assembled. 

The sentinel of the guard was empowered by the freemen's 
meeting (1659) " to command boys and men into the meeting- 
house that stand without the doors in time of exercise ; and 
if they refuse to come in at their command they shall then 
forthwith acquaint the sergeant of the guard thereof or the 
constable who shall command them." The successors of 
these refractory boys came to partly occupy the seats of their 
monitors, and their watch and care was ordered by votes of 
the Ecclesiastical Society belonging to the First church in 
Hartford ; this society being recognized after the colonization 
of the Second or South church Feb. 12, 1669. * 

*This church was popularly called the North Church as well as the First 
Church, from this date until the organization of the North Church proper, 
Sept. 23, 1824. Subsequently the Center Church. 



148 

By a vote of the society Dec. 23, 1697, "Mr. Thomas 
Butler was appointed to look after the boys that are to sett 
in the meeting-house from the north door to the pulpit in 
the first meeting-house that they do not play upon the 
Sabath or in time of public worship : And they made choice 
of George Northway to look after the boys in the south side 
the gallery for the sayd end and purpose, and all parents and 
masters of famelys are desired to order their children to sitt 
in those places that they may be looked after and kept in 
good order, that they may not prophane the Sabath by their 
disorder in the time of public worship." Another ordinance 
directs " not to suffer the boys to sit only in the south side 
gallery," and one in 1716 "that all the boys under 16 years 
old shall sit below, some in the guard seats and some in the 
alley " (upon stools attached to the end of the seats), and 
Mess. Samuel Shepard and Thos. Day were appointed to sit 
in the guard to take care of the boys there — and in 1725 
^the first that the direction is to be noted) their misdemeanors 
are by the chosen observers to be communicated to the 
Tythingmen for presentment ; and this for the while is the 
final legislation specially dedicated to the boys. These care- 
ful provisions for discipline frequently re-enacted however, 
during the century, were I suppose diligently enforced " for 
the sayd end and purpose " and without distinction of family. 
Perhaps the somewhat aggressive and severe application of 
them helped forward the advent of pews. The gathering of 
the young and old of households together in the place of 
worship, while incidentally making place for a fashion whose 
good riddance was so long delayed, inaugurated a better 
order for all the future. In 1704 "the committee of the 
society granted liberty to Mr. Samuel Gilbert to make a pue 
for himself and his family in the said meeting-house next the 
gallery stayers adjoining to the great alley in the said meet- 
ing-house the breadth of the two lower seats so far as the 
west side the small pillar that stands up to the gallery ; a 
square pue — and not liberty to dispose of it to any other by 
said Gilbert or any of his." 



149 

In the same year, Mr. Wm, Davenport is credited "for 
making a pew next to Samuel Gilbert's." These two were 
perhaps the first family pews in Hartford (the species 
survived till 1851,) but an account with Mr. Davenport in 
1702 notes the making of "a pew at the south end of the 
pulpit for some women to sit in next the women's pew," and 
another with Obidiah Spencer in 1697, credits him with 
" bannisters for the women's pews." 

There was in the house no appliance for artificial heat during 
all the ninety-nine years that it stood. We cannot be sure 
that the provisions for individual relief from cold, such as the 
heated brick, or the foot-stove, which were used in later years, 
were thought of or admissible then. Our ancestors brought 
patience to her perfect work almost, when on the wintry 
Sabbath they could wait so many revolutions of the hour- 
glass as a single service witnessed sometimes. If we are to 
believe contemporary evidence, it was the practice to watch 
the time ; a stand for the hour-glass being provided between 
the minister's desk and the elder's seat, convenient to the 
reach of either, and to the observation of all. An old and 
not very elegant cartoon of the time is mentioned in one of 
the local histories, which represents the Rev. Hugh Peters 
in his pulpit with a yawning congregation before him, he in 
the act of turning his time-keeper again, while with a coaxing 
smile, he says to them, " I know you are good fellows, stay and 
take another glass." 

As we try to make up in our minds the interior of this 
notable building, we should not overlook the possible modi- 
fications which the memory of its varied use would suggest. 

The church was as well the court-house, the town hall, 
and the capitol. Ecclesiastical and civil procedures were 
alike and together illustrated under this venerable roof. 
The faithful and reverential sexton, who from the center of 
the " great alley," rang together the Sabbath and lecture day 
worshipers, exercised other functions, and called other assem- 
blies there. It was ordered (town meeting 1640) " that if 
any person hath lost anything that he desireth should be 



ISO 

cried in a public meeting, he shall pay for crying of it two 
pence to Thomas Woodford, to be paid before it be cried ; 
and the crier shall have a book of the things that he crieth." 
So the old sexton and crier — if the veracious Rev. Samuel 
Peters is to be believed, who would have it that the first 
witch of all in America, was condemned and executed here — 
called, it may be, the court which tried her to this chamber. 
In 1 71 5, after so many years of wear and tear, the Deputy 
Governor and Council directed " that Joseph Talcott, Esq., 
take care and set workmen to mend and repair the court 
chamber in the first meeting-house at Hartford, so as may be 
safe for the court to be held in the same, at the colony's 
charge." This identity of this room was also verified by 
transactions of the Court of Assistants in 1708, disciplinary of 
Captain Joseph Wadsworth, for unseemly language spoken 
to the High Sheriff, the interview being "in the gallery of 
the meeting-house, under the court chamber, where the gov- 
ernor and council were sitting."* 

So then, here at their appointed times assemblies for wor- 
ship, ecclesiastical councils, and other religious convocations; 
the courts usually,! the public meetings of the town ; the 
council session of his Excellency the Governor; the assem- 
blies of the General Court ; conventions with deputies or 
commissioners from other colonies or foreign states were 
held. This was the theater of the excited debates before Sir 
Edmond Andross terminating with the rescue of the historic 
charter, while many another conference was gathered one day 
or another long since forgotten, whose story the eager hand of 
history never culled or else failed to save. 

To all these varying congregations whose constituency sur- 

*Hoadly, Col. Rec, v. 493. 

t The Jeremy Adams Tavern is authoritatively mentioned as a place of meet- 
ing of the courts, etc. " In this ordinary were held the Courts of Assistants (and 
probably the General Courts) as early at least as September, 1661, when a 
deposition alludes to the Court Chamber in the house of Jeremiah Adams.'' 
The Committee of the General Court on Indian Affairs, in 1678 held their meet- 
ings in the same place, and it is often named as the place of appearance, in 
summons issued by the Governor and Council and Courts of Assistants." — 
J. H. Trumbull, Col. Rec, vol. 3, 145. 



vived them but a few years the Braintree Company's old cen- 
tury bell rung out timely summons so long as voice remained. 
It failed at last. In 1726 Mr. John Edwards was directed " at 
the charge of the society to purchase some suitable red bunt- 
ing for a flag to be set up on the State House to direct for 
meeting upon the public worship of God;" and in May follow- 
ing, at a meeting of the North and South Societies of Hart- 
ford, a rate of eighty pounds for repairing or recasting the bell 
was ordered to be levied, and the final adjustment of account 
with Thomas Russell, in 1729, shows the cost between the old 
and new bell to have been ^85 ; of which the first society 
paid ,£47 $s., gd., and the second society paid ^37 14^., ^d. 

At about the same time that provision had to be made for 
the new bell, discussion of the necessity for a new house of 
worship began, and a meeting to consider it on the 2d of Jan- 
uary, 1726, developed a quite unanimous sentiment that one 
should be built immediately "if a place most accommodable 
could be agreed Upon for setting the same." A warm desire 
too, for reunion with " the new society " (now aged fifty-seven 
years), to be gathered within the projected structure was 
manifested, and His Honor the Governor and three others 
were chosen a committee to urge the matter and see if " our 
friends were of one mind, and would join to build a house for 
the public worship of God and unite into one society." At the 
end of the fortnight's conference the " the one mind" did not 
appear to prevail, and the new society did not " join." Indeed 
there seemed already many minds in our own communion 
about what was " the most accommodable place for setting 
up a meeting-house next the great street of Hartford," which 
place was now to be sought after by an impartial committee 
which was selected by vote of the society : Captain Samuel 
Mather of Windsor, Mr. Edward Bulkeley of Wethersfield, 
and Deacon John Hart of Farmington. Mr. Ebenezer Wil- 
liamson was substituted for Mr. Hart, and, I presume, not 
with any expectation of interfering with the unanimity or 
promptness of their settlement of the business, another com- 
mittee, consisting of the Governor and three others were 



t5* 

appointed " to treat with the above committee and lay (before 
them) the matters of difficulty concerning the fixing the 
place of setting up the said meeting-house." How far the 
offices of the outside committee helped to settle the choice 
of the people for the time being is uncertain. These three 
men were compensated for the expenditure of time in the 
endeavor by the payment of £,\ is. ^d., and whether it was 
money well spent or not, or however interested and close the 
canvass of this matter for the next five years, nothing about 
it came to record until December 16, 1730, when a committee 
were instructed to make formal request of the town for per- 
mission to build upon this ground which has now for one 
hundred and forty-six years been occupied by this Society. 

The town responded favorably, but the Society failed now 
to unite in measures to secure the privilege they had asked 
for, and an influential number of its members were inclined 
to build upon the other side of the " great street," where by 
and by Mrs. Elizabeth Wilson promised " to give to God and 
the First Church and Society so much of a lot as would be 
needful and convenient " for the purpose. This lot was 
between the present locations of the Wadsworth Athenaeum 
and St. John's Church, and the various preferences for this 
and for the location upon the burying lot were debated 
warmly and greatly at length. More than two-thirds of the 
voting members required by act of the Assembly were by 
the 2d of May, 1732, persuaded to accept this gift and to 
build thereupon, but the call and settlement of Mr. Wads- 
worth occupied the minds and time of the parish, so that no 
progress was made for about a year. June 25, 1733, Mrs. 
Wilson having deceased, her daughter, Mrs. Abigail Wood- 
bridge, widow of their late beloved pastor, " truly sensible of 
that desire and good intent of her honored mother, and also 
considering it a duty to honor God with her substance," con- 
veyed the lot in question to the society — seventy-nine feet 
front by ninety-eight feet in depth. It had been decided by 
vote of June 20, 1733, that the proposed building should be 
seventy feet in length by forty-six feet in width, and on 



153 

Christmas Day the following year that it should be of brick ; 
and after this long interval of time a building committee was 
appointed also, and a rate granted for the purpose of provid- 
ing materials. 

But, although all this had been sanctioned by the General 
Assembly and by legal procedure on the part of the Society, 
the work did not proceed, and in March, 1735, a majority 
were again in doubt this time whether after all it ought to 
proceed, inasmuch as " about fifty of the number refused to 
pay anything toward the cost if it were to be placed on the 
Woodbridge lot. The sympathy and advice of the General 
Assembly were sought through a committee, and the appro- 
priate agents were appointed to secure now the part of the 
burying lot which had virtually been granted by the town in 
1732, and upon this action by a majority of the Society against 
the recorded protest of a numerous minority, the business 
was, for the time being, at a halt, and the minds of a goodly 
number of Christian people greatly vexed, and another half 
year of labor under difficulties was added to the history of 
this prolonged canvass, when the meeting of the 4th and 1 ith 
of October following did, almost unanimously, " for peace' 
sake vote, agree, and sign" to accept an exchange of lots 
with Mrs. Woodbridge, and to build upon what was called 
" the barn lot," if the Assembly would so approve and order. 

However, the committee appointed January 10, 1736-7, 
failed to satisfy the good lady as to the removal of her barn 
from the lot last proposed, and on the 17th negotiations 
with her were again declared off, and were at once reopened 
with the town authorities for fixing the situation upon the 
oft besought and oft bestowed southeast corner of the bury- 
ing lot ; and also to treat with Capt. Nath'l Hooker for a 
small part of his home lot adjoining. At the same time the 
dimensions of the new house were reconsidered as well as 
the materials, and it was now ordered that it should be sixty 
feet in length instead of seventy, and that it should be of 
wood instead of brick. In two weeks this little matter was 
taken again in hand and sixty-six feet by forty-six feet 



154 

unalterably fixed, "notwithstanding any former vote to the 
contrary," and, moreover, that there should be two tiers of 
galleries ; but April 26th next, this latter was reconsidered 
and one tier of galleries only decided upon. The Assembly's 
sanction to this locality was again asked and obtained at the 
May Session, 1736-7. 

This land now being definitely occupied, proper reconvey- 
ance was made of that which Mrs. Woodbridge had given, 
and a vote passed signifying the Society's grateful sense of 
the generous regard she had shown in time past, with the 
hope that she would " not remember whatsoever hath been 
grevious to her in the affair aforesaid," and " that her return 
to this Society is what we greatly desire and should greatly 
rejoice in," an address which subsequent events showed to 
have been well-timed and effective. 

The new bell having been produced at the joint charge of 
the two ecclesiastical societies, the minds of both were to 
determine where it should hang ; and it seems that it had 
been agreed that it should remain on the old house until the 
major part of both societies should decide upon another 
place. With the somewhat numerous variations in choice as 
to locality for the meeting-house, our people had evidently 
left far behind the original question of reunion, but their 
brethren of the new society were memorialized that they 
should contribute now toward the preparation of a steeple to 
the new church in which the bell should be hung ; with 
what result as to contribution, I cannot say; but July 14th 
the First Society ordered their committee " to build a con- 
venient steeple to the meeting-house to hang a bell in." On 
the first of August, 1737, the pulpit and seats of the old 
house were ordered to be removed to the State House " for 
the convenience of the minister and the society meeting 
there for the worship of God." The old house, which was 
ninety-nine years old, was soon dismantled, and within the 
following week brought to the ground. Some of its materi- 
als were appropriated for the new building, and, although 
impossible now to identify them, some of the old timbers 



155 

are said to have been preserved and used again in the con- 
struction of this present edifice. 

The work of construction went on prosperously now, and 
many particulars have been given already in interesting 
papers published by Mr. Hoadly in 1868-9, by whose cour- 
tesy we have the opportunity to see the accounts of Dea. 
John Edwards which relate to this affair. These details 
were preserved with conscientious accuracy by this devoted 
officer of the church and society — an uncle of the famous 
and reverend Jonathan Edwards — every item, expenditure, or 
receipt, from the allowance made to the owner of a servant 
for his labor to the sale of ten nails from the old building for 
fourpence ha'penny.* 

Some of the incidentals may serve to remind you that the 
Christian conscience of the time had not yet been quickened 
by the spirit of the Washingtonian reformation. 

The frame of the house was raised by the 22d September, 
1737, and, being covered before the advent of winter, the 
work rested to be resumed the following season, and pushed 
to completion and dedication the 30th December, 1739. ft 
stood upon the ground at the front of that occupied by this 
present edifice, the side to the street ; the main building a 
fraction over sixty-six feet in length by forty-six feet in 
width, its southeastern corner being about seven feet north 
from the building standing then, as now, the next on that 
side, the tower extending at the north and fourteen feet 
further along or near the front line. The roof rested at an 
appropriate height above two rows of windows, and the 
tower elevated the bell turret a full story at least above the 
ridge-pole — the spire still rising high above this with its 
lofty pole and gilded ball and weathercock. The edifice, 
with its bright paint surfaces, must have been a sightly 
object from almost every approach to the favored town, 

* Shells were brought from the sea-coast from which to make the lime 
required for the building. July, 1739, is charged, " To money paid Mr. Bigelow 
for his negro to help unload shells." Slave labor was appropriated in various 
ways in course of the work. 



i 5 6 

doubtless emulating many of the external glories of the Old 
South of Boston, which, since its erection in 1730, had been 
considered a model for the decade. 

That spire pole must have been no inconsiderable affair. 
Mr. Eben Sedgwick was paid £g l$s. od. for getting it, and 
when ready for its place two gallons of cider, a half pound 
of sugar, and two quarts and a pint of rum were required 
"to treat the hands when histed up the Spire Pole into ye 
Tower." This even was only less than half way. Eighteen 
quarts of rum and more sugar it took for the same purpose 
" when Rayzed the Spire " from the summit of which this 
mast bearing the showy vane was finally elevated. Numer- 
ous further outlays for refreshment are recorded by the 
faithful overseer and accountant. About ten pounds were 
expended for the raising proper, and at the occurrence of 
other more or less arduous parts of the work such as " load- 
ing stone in the water," all noted apparently with the freedom 
of an untrammeled conscience, the good man perhaps 
rejoicing all the while that the quality of the cordials had 
not deteriorated as much as had the current money with 
which he must pay his laborers. Within the house, at the 
head of the " Great Alley," which, not obstructed now as in 
the former one by the bell-ringer and his rope, extended 
from the front door westward, the pulpit arose to an altitude 
easily commanding every foot of the surrounding galleries, 
furnished with an imposing canopy or sounding board, and 
the handsome window hangings behind. Beside the cush- 
ioned desk was placed a new hour glass, its case of a model 
and finish more pretentious than its predecessors. Mr. Seth 
Young thought the society could well afford to pay £6 for 
it, but the bill was settled for £$ 10s. id. Another aisle 
probably crossed the house from the north or tower entrance 
to that at the south end. Plain seats or slips occupied most 
of the middle of the audience room at first, some pews 
being placed probably at either side of the pulpit, and per- 
haps extending as far as the north and south doors. Mr. 
Gerard Spencer turned something over nine hundred " ban- 



157 

nisters" for the tops of them. In 1750 the society ordered 
four more to be built, two on each side of the ''• Broad Alley," 
and others from time to time were placed there as wanted, 
until most of this part of the floor was occupied by them. 
The windows in the lower part of the house at least appear 
to have been fitted and hung with pulleys procured by John 
Beauchamp from Boston. Other persons at sundry times 
delivered considerable quantities of iron " to make waits for 
ye windows," so that these convenient appliances at present 
to be found in our houses are not of so modern invention as 
some of us had supposed. Cords to hang the sashes were 
doubtless made here ; various purchases of hemp and flax 
"to make rope" are noted upon Mr. Edwards' book, and one 
large rope "with block" for the raising was bought at 
Northampton. There was no provision at this day nor for 
three-quarters of a century to come for heating. Nobody 
knew the necessity, so the invention delayed. Dr. Strong 
preached a Century sermon in the house the 4th January, 
1800, and a note prefacing the printed copy says that " the 
extreme cold of the day caused some parts of it to be 
omitted in the delivery." This, however, was when the house 
was old and out of repair. I suppose there were few chilly 
bodies in the congregation who on the freezing December 
day united with their pastor in dedicating this exceptionally 
attractive building. "This house," said he, "is beautiful and 
magnificent; much cost and labor have been expended upon 
it!" But, if the building committee had satisfied every- 
body, it was another and difficult affair properly and satis- 
factorily to seat or dignify the house. Within a year Mr. 
Joseph Gilbert, Jr., memorialized the society, " setting forth 
sundry grievances respecting the seating of our meeting- 
house, and more especially respecting the Commity seating 
him." Five picked men had carefully done the work of 
which he complained, and six others in deference to his 
remonstrance, were chosen to review it and heal the trouble ; 
and we are to believe their intervention was favored, for no 
recorded signs of discontent appear until the last of January, 



i 5 8 

1759' when the discussions that had been going on for some 
time culuminated in the discharge of one committee and 
choice of another to "seat the meeting-house in such just 
and equal manner as they shall find suitable .... in the 
usual way and manner, or otherwise to project some other 
scheme or plan for such purpose as they shall think most 
eligible." This committee gave it up and three other breth- 
ren were asked to undertake the same. What they accom- 
plished does not appear, but at the annual meeting in 1760, 
it was Voted : " that the Inhabitants of the Society for the 
future, and until otherwise ordered, have Liberty to accom- 
modate themselves with seats in the Meeting-House at their 
Discretion, any measures this society hath heretofore taken 
for seating the house notwithstanding." One year seemed 
enough for this, and the old order was resumed for 1761, 
and thereafter continued with some modifications, including 
authority " to make alterations by removing and newseating 
such others who are already seated, as said committee may 
think proper." 

It was not an easy matter to dispose of the singers. 

Formerly the Psalm was " set " by an appointee of the 
society, under whose leadership the congregation joined, but 
after a while, as a specialty, Psalmody was regarded as a 
serious matter, and this congregation had its trials with it. 
Nevertheless, in 1733, June 20th, at a special meeting, legally 
warned, His Honor the Governor in the chair, it was cau- 
tiously voted " that this society are willing and consent 
that such of them as encline to learn to sing by rule should 
apply themselves in the best manner they can to gain the 
knowledge thereof .... that after the expiration of three 
months, singing by rule shall be admitted to be practiced in 
the congregation of this society in their public worship on 
the Lord's Day, and until their Annual Meeting in December 
next, and then that a vote be taken whether the society will 
further proceed in that way or otherwise, and as the major 
vote shall be, so peacably to practice." Mr. Wm. Goodwin 
was requested for the three months to continue setting the 



159 

Psalms (old style), as Mr. Maynard Day had done, and dur- 
ing the trial of the new experiment Mr. Jos. Gilbert, Jr., 
would perform that service. It succeeded, was voted into 
order in December, and Mr. Gilbert continued with the 
responsibility of setting the Psalms (new style). So then 
the service of song gradually advanced to more special 
notice. Instructions in Psalmody were promoted ; the choir 
came to the front, and, of course, must have a becoming 
place in the assembly. If they were here, as otherwheres, 
to be awarded seats at the head of the center aisle, it would 
be somewhat to the discomfiture of those who had occupied 
them hitherto. The matter was delayed here and in other 
churches. At Medford, Mass., the church refused to "grant 
seats" to singers at all, as late as 1770. At Hollis, N. H., 
in 1784, it was agreed "that twelve feet of the hind body 
seats below, next the Broad aisle, be appropriated to the use 
of singers on condition that a certain number of them will 
give the Glass necessary to repair the windows." However, 
a satisfactory location was found for the singers of this 
society, and without the payment by them of a premium in 
glass. 

In October, 1769, a society of singing masters " voluntarily 
associated with a view to encourage Psalmody in this Gov- 
ernment," invited the public to the South Meeting-House to 
hear several new pieces of music performed with voices and 
instruments, and a sermon preached on the occasion." This 
was a suggestion of coming accessions, and, eventually, with 
numerous flutes and viols, the singers betook themselves to 
the gallery opposite the pulpit. Just when this change took 
place I am unable to say, but the choir secured the place, 
and thereafter were ready when wanted. They had their 
part in "the becoming Cheerfulness and Decency which 
characterized the occasion" when Mr. Strong was installed. 
When the reverend council with the young candidate and 
the brethren of the church and the committee of the society 
came in procession from the house of Capt. Hugh Ledlie, 
where they had convened, the solemn noise of the singers' 



i6o 

anthem filled the sanctuary, and the chroniclers of the event 
gave it a commemoration until this day. Public proclama- 
tion of good news was made in our streets May 6, 1783. It 
was the official tidings of the cessation of British hostilities and 
of peace. Drum and gunpowder satisfied the patriotic ear 
and heart with their din, and then The Guard and The Artillery 
Company, followed in order by the sheriff, the secretary, the 
authority of the town, several of the clergy, and the specta- 
tors, proceeded to the meeting-house from the court-house, 
and the singers and players upon instruments led them in a 
psalm of thanksgiving and an anthem of praise. 

The house wonderfully escaped total destruction by electric 
fire June 14, 1767. It was one of Cotton Mather's charac- 
teristic observations that "if things that are smitten by 
lightning were to be esteemed sacred, this were a sacred 
country. It hath been seen that thunders oftener fall upon 
houses of God than upon other houses. New England can 
say so. Our meeting-houses and our ministers' houses have 
had a singular share in the strokes of thunder." On this 
memorable Lord's Day a storm which in its course did great 
damage "in divers parts of the Colony," broke over this town 
just as divine service was concluded. The lightning struck 
the steeple, "shattering all the top work to pieces," and 
descending to the audience-room, wounded one or two persons 
and killed one young woman. In the fright and rush of the 
moment one or two others were injured, but order was 
restored and " they were desired every one of them to return 
to their seats and join in singing a Psalm to the praise of 
Almighty God."* 

This admonitory occurrence evidently had the effect of 
composing such differences of opinion regarding the use of 
Dr. Franklin's electrical rods as had existed in this community. 
There had been all sorts of objections urged against the 
invention from various parts of the country, as one news 
contributor wrote, "by many strong anti-electricians; and 
some of them from a religious principle, had censured the 
erection of 'sharp points' as a presumptuous meddling with 

* Courant. 



i6i 

heaven's artillery, and that instead of drawing down safety 
wished it might not be a means of drawing down the divine 
displeasure." 

However, with the needed appropriation for repairs to the 
steeple was included the amount required to procure the 
much discussed protectors, and 1767, I think, may fairly be 
entered upon our annals as the year in which the lightning- 
rod man discovered Hartford. 

For nearly forty years more (and to the reader of civil or 
ecclesiastical history, what eventful years !) the house sur- 
vived the changes going on in the world and the town, when 
its age and its inadequacy became apparent and its displace- 
ment inevitable. The society voted December 11, 1804, 
that a committee should consider whether it was expedient 
to erect a new one, to report a plan, etc., and March 22, 
1805, That a new Meeting-House should be built at such 
place as the County Court should designate, provided money 
could be raised by donation and by sale of pews to pay for 
it. In December, 1805, the old, third house of worship in 
Hartford, was removed. There is one of our present con- 
gregation who remembers some incidents of that occasion — 
now almost four score years past. The leave taking of the 
old pew, fixed in his child memory by the sober and reluctant 
manner of those who led him home from the last service 
there; the rescue of the little old foot rest or cricket, which 
for preservation, he brought away in his arms — a rather 
burthensome trophy to the tiny boy; the fall of the steeple 
on the following day; the suspense that awed him so when 
the long ropes were manned, and while they straightened 
with the strong and steady pull ; the strange and startling 
shimmer of light upon the old weathercock which swayed 
crazily once or twice as the shout of them that triumphed 
arose, and then pitched forward and zigzag on its flight to 
the further side of the street. 

The bell, which was older than the steeple, and when recast 
(1726-9) included the old Newtown bell — and the clock, whose 
date cannot be recalled, although referred to by an author who 



1 62 

must have probably seen it, if at all, before 1774,* were placed 
for the time being in the tower of the Episcopal Church, built 
about ten years before. An exchange of parts of adjoining 
space had been negotiated with the town, the needed funds for 
the new outlay were reasonably assured, the foundations were 
laid March 6, 1806, and the building in which we are gathered 
to-day was completed and, unencumbered by debt, was dedi- 
cated December 3, 1807 — the congregation having worshiped 
during the long interim in the Hartford Theatre, in Theatre 
(now Temple) street. The final and revised statement of 
the building committee, made December 22, 1812, placed the 
total disbursements by them at $32,014.26. Of this amount 
$ 2 7>733 had been realized by sale of pews and slips, some in 
fee simple, some for a term of thirty years — conveyances 
unavoidable at the time, but embarrassing and troublesome 
in later years. They were eventually, all but one or two, 
repurchased by the society and canceled, and were the prin- 
cipal cause of the debt carried so long, finally and happily 
disposed of the year before last. The pews were built at 
the sides of the house above and below; slips at the front of 
the galleries and in the middle of the floor ; one pew at the 
middle of each side being dignified by name as the Gover- 
nor's Pew, and finished with a somewhat ornamented canopy, 
which remained, as some present will remember, until 1831. 
This house, like its predecessors, was finished without arti- 
ficial heat ; and for the majority of those in the assemblies of 
the day, there was no help for the cold. Some, — many indeed, 
— had footstoves now and found a real amelioration of the 
temperature, which oftentimes during a freezing week 
awaited their coming to the place of worship, charged with 
dangerous if not fatal damps and chills. Notwithstanding 
we are to suppose that all who worshiped were robust, and 
heavily clad in frosty weather, it is a legitimate wonder 
that not till 181 5 were stoves placed in this house ; and that 
when introduced otherwheres, the comfortable innovation was 
so seriously and so ridiculously objected to. The luxury was 
recognized and protected here. The footstoves were put 

t Peters' Hist. Conn., p. 164. 



1 63 

aside, and the committee were instructed (1830) to remove 
to the portico any that might be found at the close of service 
at any time. 

The clock returned to its place after the completion of the 
steeple, remained in use until worn out and until the present 
one was procured in 1849. The old bell, after numerous 
overtures for its purchase, finally returned and continued 
long to do service, though regarded too small for so large an 
edifice. It is a matter for congratulation that it after all 
escaped sale and transfer. It was recast at Chicopee, Mass., 
in 1843-4 with largely increased weight, but after compara- 
tively brief use failed, and was recast again at Troy in 1849- 
50. As you hear it to-day, its grand and musical voice is 
tuned with the metal of the old bell of 1632. 

The first organ in use here was the gift of individuals of 
this Society and congregation, "cheerfully accepted," the 
record says, June 22, 1822. Its successor, an exceptionally 
fine and grand instrument, replaced it in 1835. It was fur- 
nished at the expense of the society, partly, and partly by 
personal subscriptions, and after so long and notable service 
gives place to the one which you hear to-day — the munificent 
bestowal of one of your number, offered as a memorial of her 
beloved husband. 

The first important changes that were made in the arrange- 
ment of this interior, took place at the time that preparations 
were made for the organ in 1835, when the galleries and the 
pulpit were lowered. In 185 1 more extensive alterations 
took place. All the pews and the still lofty pulpit were 
removed ; the recess for the platform and desk was built ; 
the windows were changed ; those at the west end closed, 
and a new arch to the ceiling built, leaving the audience-room 
in shape substantially as you see it to-day. 

Said Dr. Strong, when this last, our fourth, edifice in Hart- 
ford was dedicated, "My dear youth, you behold the zeal of 
your fathers, who have erected this building and who daily 
pray that you may long live to worship the God whom they 
have served. . . . We who stand where the word of God is 
dispensed, do now in his awful presence charge you, that 
when the fathers sleep this place may be holy to the Lord." 



164 
REMINISCENCES. 

BY REV. AARON L. CHAPIN. 

These recollections touch upon the latter part of the first 
quarter of the present century, — when the population of 
Hartford was less than ten thousand, — when Main street, 
from the junction of the Albany and Windsor roads to the 
South Green, measured the length of the city ; when, north of 
Morgan street, west of Trumbull street, and south and 
west of the Little river, stretched open fields with only here 
and there a dwelling, — when gas was unknown and the 
streets were dimly lighted by oil lamps, few and far between, — 
when the city post-office was a single room in the dwelling- 
house of the postmaster, nearly opposite the First church, 
with a window opening on the street for the delivery of let- 
ters and a slit in the door for receiving them, — when the only 
church edifices in the city were the First church, more fre- 
quently called the Brick church, since all the rest were of 
wood, the Second or South church, an Episcopal church 
on the corner of Main and Church streets, opposite the 
present site of Christ church, a Baptist church on the 
corner of Temple and Market streets, a Methodist church, 
just erected against strong protests, on the corner of Trum- 
bull and Chapel streets, and a small Roman Catholic chapel 
on Talcott street. 

My thoughts center around the First church, and memory 
brings distinctly before me the picture of that house of 
worship as it then was, with its majestic Grecian portico, 
its stately Corinthian columns, its high gallery, its beautiful 
mahogany pulpit raised to the level of the gallery front, to 
which ascent was made by flights of winding stairs on either 
side, its square pews around the walls (that in the southwest 
corner being distinguished as the governor's pew, and hung 
with heavy drapery), its slips with high, straight backs filling 
the central space, and its grand old steeple, on the point of 
whose vane sat a gilded bird said to contain a copy of Dr. 



i6 5 

Strong's dedication sermon, and from which the call to 
service and the faithful clock's count of passing hours rang 
out in the silver tones of the clear, sweet bell heard distinctly 
in all parts of the city. Glad am I to learn that the metal 
of the old bell is blended with the heavier mass of the new 
one, adding richness to its deep vibrations as they linger on 
the ear. 

Now let me take you to the slip in the south gallery, near 
the middle, intimately associated with my earliest attendance 
on Sabbath services in the sanctuary. I found it the other 
day just as it used to be, except that with the entire gallery, 
it has been lowered four or five feet. There before my child 
eyes stood the tali, gaunt form of the young pastor, Joel 
Hawes, singularly awkward in the blacksmith's motion of his 
long arms, singularly impressive as with soul-earnestness he 
uttered plain gospel truth, to which the emphatic forefinger 
seemed to give point to pierce his hearers' "hearts. At the 
other end of the house the singers' gallery was an object oi 
special interest, with its numerous choir of young men and 
maidens, supported in their song by the viol and flute tdl 
the first little organ was introduced, a notable incident 
There come back to me to-day, fresh and vivid, the childish 
fancies which busied my little brain when that organ was 
first brought into use — fancies of many players on instru- 
ments shut within the shining case — fancies of myself 
winged as an angel, seizing one of the golden pipes, soaring 
around the vaulted ceiling and making the arch ring with 
trumpet notes of joy. 

To me, another point in the old church was of special 
interest. It was the little end of the front slip, cut off by the 
first column to the left of the pulpit. That slip is now 
removed, and the column has a new pedestal finished to the 
floor, but in the earlier days, like the other slips in which the 
columns come, it was divided so that the shorter end made 
comfortable sittings for two. There, as regularly as the 
Sabbath returned, were always to be seen two faces familiar 
to the whole congregation. They were the two Aaron s, who, 



1 66 

as Dr. Hawes was wont to say, were to him what Aaron and 
Hur were to Moses — Deacon Aaron Chapin and Deacon 
Aaron Col ton. Deacon Chapin sat nearest the aisle, his 
hands resting on his staff, his head erect, his double specta- 
cles thrown back upon his forehead, a devout listener. 
Deacon Colton's place was by the column, where, with con- 
veniences of his own contriving, he took pen and ink notes 
of every sermon. Some hundreds of his outlines are still 
extant to indicate the character and style of the preaching 
from that pulpit in those days. Their wives were invalids, 
unable to attend church, and so they sat by themselves. 

These two men had come, one from the hive of Chapins in 
Chicopee, and the other from the hive of Coltons in Long- 
meadow, and settled in Hartford about the time of the close 
of the revolutionary war. They were plain mechanics of the 
same trade — cabinet-makers — and in fortune realized the 
prayer of Agur. 'At about the age of sixty, each had withdrawn 
from the stir and worry of large business, and was occupied 
by himself in a special industry of his own. Active, but not 
anxious, they lived for more than twenty years, beautiful 
exemplars of a cheerful, happy old age, pervaded with Christian 
faith and hope and love. The office of deacon seemed to 
come to them by a law of heredity, for the ancestry of each, 
for four or five generations, was a line of deacons. More- 
over, they were to each other, own cousins. So it happened, 
almost as a matter of course, that in 1813 under the pastorate 
of Dr. Strong, they were together elected deacons of this First 
church, and retained the office till their death in 1838 and 
1840, respectively. Josiah Beckwith, their special friend, 
was elected at the same time with them. Their colleagues 
in office were, by earlier elections, Ezra Corning, Isaac Bull, 
and Joseph Steward ; by later elections, Russell Bunce, Wil- 
liam W. Ellsworth, William W. Turner, and Thomas S. Wil- 
liams — a goodly company of Christian worthies. 

The war of the Revolution and the independence of our na- 
tion was followed by a period of sad declension and skepticism 
quite general. But as the nineteenth century opened, there 



167 

came a reviving breath from the Spirit of the Lord which 
quickened the languishing churches to new life. The winter 
of 1807-8 was the time of such a refreshing to this First 
church. My parents and grandparents loved to tell the story 
of that gracious visitation. Often have I heard it from their 
lips and felt its impression on my child-heart. The pages of 
the Evangelical Magazine of that period give in simple terms 
a sketch of the great revival. The records of the church 
show how the ingathering of that precious harvest brought 
into its fellowship some scores of persons who for half a 
century were its ornaments of grace and its pillars of 
strength. With that revival was introduced what was the 
" new measure " of that day — the evening meeting for social 
conference and prayer. Some conservatives in the church 
looked upon it with distrust and suspicion. But the pastor, 
Dr. Strong, went into it with all his heart and was well 
sustained by the earnest spiritual members of his flock. At 
first the meetings were held in private houses in different 
parts of the parish, most frequently at the house of Mr. 
Colton, convenient from its central position. Very tender 
and precious were the scenes witnessed in those circles, as 
hearts bowed in penitence found peace in believing, to the 
joy of saints on earth and angels in heaven. The interest 
in these meetings was so great as to demand better and 
more fixed accommodations. But the prejudices of many 
forbade an attempt to induce the society to provide a place. 
The tact and wisdom of the pastor were equal to the emer- 
gency, and under his guidance a few individuals joined hands 
and the want was met. Mr. Colton offered a corner of his 
own lot for a site. Others contributed the needed means, 
and the little brick conference house on Temple street was 
built. The records of the society show that a formal transfer 
of the building to the society was made by deacons Chapin 
and Beckwith, in 18 15. I think it had been completed and 
used for a few years previous to that date. There the social 
meetings of the church continued to be held till 1832, when 
the present more commodious lecture-room was secured. A 



i68 

few clays ago I found the little brick house still standing, 
devoted to humbler uses as a workshop for a carpenter and a 
painter. As I crossed the threshold the old associations 
returned. I remembered how Deacon Colton took upon 
himself the voluntary and gratuitous services of a sexton for 
the building, calling in occasionally the assistance of one or 
another of his grandsons ; how the two deacons were always 
present, the one with his pitchpipe to set and lead the 
worship of song, the other with heart always attuned lo lead 
in fervent prayer; how in later revivals under Dr. Hawes 
the little room used to be filled morning after morning for a 
sunrise prayer-meeting j and especially how the house was 
packed with people eager to hear Dr. Nettleton, as he came 
full of faith and the- Iloly Ghost on one of his last evan- 
gelistic tours, and the power of the truth uttered in quiet 
solemnity of manner held all, even the little boys looking 
clown through the door of the attic, in breathless attention. 
The walls of that little house are already cracked and must 
soon fall, but there is a record in Heaven of things done 
there which can never pass away — of some hundreds of 
redeemed souls it is written for the eternal ages, to the glory 
of God's love and grace, "This and that man was born 
there." 

Now there come thronging on my recollection, pictures of 
these two men as they met the duties of their sacred office. 
Let me try to bring two or three of them out from the mists 
of the past. It is early evening, the simple supper oi bread 
and milk, always the same, is finished, and Deacon Colton, with 
stall in one hand and lantern in the other, is starting forth 
on an errand of Christian love. His form is erect, his step 
is elastic and brisk— seventy years have passed over his head, 
but no sign of weakness appears yet — he makes his way 
rapidly as one who has a mission, to the humble home of a 
poor widow and thence to the bedside of a sick brother. 
Then on his return, he drops in to tell Deacon Chapin what he 
has seen and heard, and they confer about what is to be done 
for these needy ones of the flock. Young ears listen and 



169 

young minds apprehend something good and noble in such 
ministry to Christ's little ones. 

It is a dismal November afternoon. Deacon Chapin, in his 
little shop, cheers himself with humming a tunc as he tinkers 
the old watch in his band. He has just cracked a nut with 
his vise and passed it to the youngster in the corner. The 
door opens and the pastor enters with face downcast and 
spirit disheartened, lie receives a kindly greeting, and 
almost before lie can utter his complaint, .1 spark of dry 
humor from the deacon's lips has forced a smile upon his 
own, and as the talk runs on, the burden on his soul is lifted 
and removed, and after a few minutes, he passes out joyous 
and hopeful. It was good Christian talk all the way through, 
and yet there was hardly a solemn word in the whole con- 
lion. The blessed thing about the interview was the 
cheerful spirit of one whose religion was the tenor of a 
trustful, godly life. 

It is a Saturday afternoon, the day before the communion. 
On Deacon Colton devolves the charge of preparing the ele- 
ments for the Supper. All the manual labor must be done, as 
far as possible, before the Saturday's sun shall set. The bread 
made of flour chosen and set apart for this purpose, baked 
to just the perfect tint of brown, is before him. He takes 
the knife devoted to this peculiar use and reverently removes 
the crust, then skillfully divides each loaf and binds it 
together to keep its place and moisture, then carefully packs 
all with the sacred vessels and calls upon his grandson to 
accompany him, wheeling the precious load to be safely 
deposited in the church before the sun goes down. This 
done, he returns and devotes the quiet of the evening to the 
preparation of his soul to hold communion with his crucified 
and living Lord. In all this there was nothing like fetichism, 
no foolish superstition, but a cherished, hallowed association 
of material symbols with spiritual realities, grand and holy. 
To the children's taste, no bread was ever so sweet as those 
communion crusts, which, with sweet milk, made their Sun- 
day morning meal. 



170 

One more picture must suffice. It is in the new lecture- 
room in the early days of its use. Deacon Colton has his place 
uniformly just by the desk at the left hand of the minister. 
Deacon Chapin's place is marked by an iron rod which rises 
above the level of the pews a few seats in front of the desk. 
A few minutes before the conference service is to begin, a 
lamp is set on the top of the rod, and by it stands the good 
old man of eighty, to guide the little company of singers 
gathered before him in the practice of the tunes to be sung. 
He is much delighted with the new revival hymns of the 
Christian Lyre just published, and would mingle some of 
them with the older and more staid strains of the sanctuary. 
The clear tenor voice is not so steady as it once was, but it 
has lost none of its sweetness. He gives the key-note from 
his pitchpipe, with the beat of his cane he brings up the time 
when it lags, his own enthusiasm kindles a glow of praise in 
other souls, and when the gathered congregation all join in 
under his lead, the song is full of heart-melody, and is akin 
to the worship of heaven. He continued to serve at this post 
of duty till his voice began to break, and through the weaken- 
ing of his mental faculties he would name a new tune and 
start an old one, to the amusement and confusion of his class. 
Then he withdrew, and afterward spent many an evening in 
running over old familiar hymns and tunes, offering unto 
God the silent song-worship of a soul that never faltered in 
its faith and love even to the end. 

The simple lives of these Levites of the Lord's house were 
almost exempt from sickness. Each was stricken down by 
paralysis at last, Deacon Chapin in his 86th, Deacon Colton in 
his 82d year. The savor of their true-hearted piety lingers 
still on earth, and will ascend as sweet incense before the 
throne of God forever. Their mortal parts lie side by side 
in the North burying-ground, and not far off, with them 
waiting the resurrection, sleeps the body of their Loved 
pastor, Dr. Strong, and I think also that of their later pastor, 
Dr. Hawes. May this First church of Connecticut, so blest 
in its past history, be favored ever with a succession of no 
less faithful pastors and no less faithful deacons. 



Friday Afternoon. 



RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO THE CIVIL 
GOVERNMENT. 

BY PINCKNEY W. ELLSWORTH. 

At the request of the committee of the First Congrega- 
tional church of Hartford, an article is now presented by the 
writer, upon the relation between the Congregational order, 
and the State ; and especially the influence exercised upon 
the latter by this ancient Society, collectively or individually. 
As it is not my intent to preach a sermon, a text was omitted. 
But as the essay was proving too long for the patience of 
this audience, and as abbreviation was necessary by cutting 
off both ends, taking out much from the middle and several 
joints from its body elsewhere, producing a solution of con- 
tinuity, as we professionally describe it, I have adopted the 
17th verse of the 65th chapter of Isaiah as a rallying point, 
should any become lost in its mazes and that of prophecy : 
"Behold I create new heavens and a new earth." Although 
undertaken with reluctance, the writer could not refuse to 
do the little in his power to honor the memory of the heroic 
men and women of 1633 ; for in his own veins flows the blood 
both of Separatist and Huguenot, whose names still live in 
the family record. The acts of the clergy will be delineated 
by other and abler hands. They were the life of the move- 
ment which took the Colonists out of the jaws of the lion, 
though placing temporarily many of the pious and learned 
of England's gentry and yeomanry in a crucible of affliction, 
from which, under the watchful eye of a Divine overseer, was 
poured forth an ingot of inestimable value. Thus was ful- 
filled again and on a grander scale, " Behold I have refined 
thee, but not with silver, I have chosen thee in the furnace 
of affliction." In the premises I would say, Congregational- 
ism is the simplest and most natural form of administration 



174 

as regards ecclesiastical and civil affairs, and is practicable 
only with those having a deep sense of personal freedom, 
and unhampered by an aristocracy, and is the frame work or 
body through which the vital forces of liberty and religion 
manifested their presence in New England. We propose 
now to examine this principle which pervades all public 
transactions, not as an abstraction, but concrete in the lives 
of the settlers, and the civil and ecclesiastical government 
they established, showing the ennobling, invigorating, and 
happy effects of piety, when acting through the most natural, 
simple, and Scriptural polity of independency. Any other 
method of presenting the subject would not be suggestive 
to those making ecclesiastical matters a professional study, 
or interesting to a miscellaneous audience. 

The Church polity, especially as related to the civil power, 
was not fully settled by the colonists for a long period, though 
the general idea of equality was acted on. Nevertheless, 
educated to believe the Church should find a protector in the 
State, notwithstanding their bitter experience, they adopted 
the same error in a modified form, giving the Church the 
precedence. This was especially true of Massachusetts, and 
led of course to trouble, continuing nearly a century ; develop- 
ing endless disputes, schism, the half-way covenant, and a 
fatal decline in piety, from which the church was rescued 
finally by the preponderating weight of 40,000 or 50,000 con- 
verts, the fruit of the great awakening under Edwards in 
1735 to 1743. The Puritans at first seem to have had their 
minds fixed on the rescue of the Church from tyranny over- 
the conscience, without having settled on the "modus in quo," 
and the State was of little account except as protector of 
their own personal rights and religious freedom. The gen- 
eral opinion as to what was correct, and which, more or less 
modified, lay as foundation truths, was expressed by Daven- 
port at New Haven in the great meeting in Newman's barn : 
" Ecclesiastical administrations are a divine order, appointed 
to believers for holy communion in holy things ; civil admin- 
istrations are a human order, appointed by God to men, for 



175 

civil fellowship of human things." " That the ecclesiastical 
order and the civil must have different laws, different officers, 
and different powers." John Wise in 1717 made a great sen- 
sation in laying down Congregational principles as now 
accepted, which expressed the views of Roger Williams, so 
much in advance of his time, that in ecclesiastical censures 
the State has no interest, and that it has no authority over 
conscience. 

The ways of God are not our ways. The very calamities, 
almost crushing in their character, which beset our fathers, 
saved New England. Sickness, cold, famine, war, death, and 
sorrows innumerable, protected the colonies from the rush 
of those whose only motives were gain, and preserved the 
land for those who could sacrifice all for the love of God. 
It was only by force the best stock of England could be 
wrenched from her soil and transplanted to New England ; 
therefore the cruelties of Archbishop Laud were made 
instrumental in giving at the start the noblest men of 
Europe to the colonies, and God protected them ; not indeed 
by a sea of fire as Jefferson wished, but barriers of floating 
ice and a storm-swept ocean, clothed with unknown terrors, 
to them boundless in extent, yet a sea to be removed, when 
its protection should be no more needed and the swift 
steamer and sub-marine cable should practically say, there 
is " no more sea." Thus the holy seed was left to germinate 
in peace, even under the freezing blasts of an American 
winter, and in a rugged soil, whose matured fruit should 
" shake like Lebanon." With the word of God came light,' 
and with light, liberty. Immediately on the entrance of 
these factors into the life of nations, we see the most aston- 
ishing results. At once upon the pressure of evils so intol- 
erable that exile or rebellion alone presented hope of relief, 
the two wings of the great eagle of the apocalypse, which 
had once borne the church to the valleys of Piedmont, the 
mountains of Switzerland, and the morasses of Holland, 
were outstretched for a new and mightier flight, to that far 
distant portion of the wilderness- prepared for her, where she 



176 

might be nourished in safety from that terrible power which 
for a thousand years had placed its foot upon the neck of 
every potentate, and reigned triumphant over " all kindreds 
and tongues and nations." It is true that papacy had parted 
with many of its errors in manifesting itself as the church of 
England, and in its new phase held in its communion many 
truly godly men ; but its hierarchy was still actuated by the 
spirit of persecution, and a pope yet lived in the person of a 
king, head of the church, neither by divine appointment nor 
the will of its members, man}' of whom still pined for the 
gold, the scarlet, the merchandise and pomp of Rome. The 
spirit of popery is tyranny over the souls of men in the 
name of Christ. The true meaning of anti-Christ is, in 
place of Christ. There simply remained the old enemy, 
with a new name and new ministers. It still had two horns 
like a lamb, and its voice was unchanged. Observe the fact, 
not without significance, that the eagle, as if selected by a 
divine heraldry, now symbolizes the nation, which by pro- 
phetic figure was thereby saved. Let us then when we con- 
template this emblem of our country, with unfeigned grati- 
tude remember him who said of his people found in like cir- 
cumstances, " As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over 
her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth 
them on her wings, so the Lord did lead him and there was 
no strange God with him." The early settlers of Massachu- 
setts were called Separatists, and were much opposed to the 
Puritans, who, remaining in the church of England, were 
looking for an internal reform. But on emigrating to America 
the words of John Robinson were fulfilled, and when the 
repressing hand of power was removed the Puritans dropped 
the uniform of the man of sin, and all returned to the sim- 
plicity which is in Christ, uniting at the table of the Lord 
under the name of Puritan. None of the colonies at first 
broke from the church of England except that of Plymouth, 
and the clergy were all ordained by English bishops. But 
as their minds became enlightened by the spirit of God, and 
the mists of superstition and of early education were 



177 

removed, they all stood forth as freemen in Christ, and 
adopting the now existing polity, were able to apply every 
energy to extend the cause and kingdom of their divine Mas- 
ter. We see the inestimable value of the first settlers of a 
nation being godly men, for as the seed such is the 
fruit. Every people will inevitably find themselves sooner 
or later under a government demanded by the moral state 
of the majority if that majority is large and powerful: 
in other words, will have as good as it deserves. It 
would be utterly impossible for any nation to possess a 
free, stable, and safe government, not founded on the princi- 
ples taught in the word of God. The Orsini bomb, the dag- 
ger, dynamite, the assassin's bullet, are not the weapons 
blessed by Him who said "Not by might nor by power, bat 
by my spirit;" nor were they the defences of the settlers of 
New England. It would be impossible for those seeking 
free institutions in Europe, especially for those possessing a 
state religion, to maintain self-government as it exists in the 
United States. Marshal Prym recognized this insuperable 
obstacle in the recent revolution in Spain. Even France, 
which has a small element of Protestantism to redeem it, is 
ever on a volcano. The tocsin of St. Germain, sounding the 
death signal of 75,000 children of God, still rings in the ears 
of Him who said " vengeance is mine," the scales of whose 
justice respond to an atom's weight ; and France humbled 
herself in the dust before the glittering bayonets of the 
martial host, descendants of the 350,000 exiled Huguenots, 
the moral and military strength of her realm, but who, 
protected by the friendly arms of Germany were in their sons 
an avenging sword. The steps of her Goddess of Liberty 
are unsteady on a land slippery with the blood of martyrs of 
Jesus. They were the salt which ages could not restore, 
which, had it remained, would have given stability, averted 
moral corruption, and made her the peer of England ; pre- 
venting the commune, the Reign of Terror and of the 
guillotine, the carnage of Napoleon ; Eilau, Austerlitz, Tra- 
falgar, Waterloo, the madness of the Second Empire, Grave- 
-3 



1 78 

lotte, Sedan ; the siege of Paris and of Metz ; that sad 
episode in her history of slaughter, the second commune, 
with the satanic orgies of the Petroleuse, legitimate daughters 
of her goddess, from whose torches, lighted by the flames 
of the bottomless pit, the battered palaces of Paris were 
rescued, only by the superlative horrors of " the week of 
blood ; " "For they have shed the blood of saints and proph- 
ets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are 
worthy." Nor can any other people stand fast in that liberty 
which God designed, who are not free in spirit, who know 
not the God of the Protestant, the Protestant Bible, and 
Protestant principles. The chief sorrows of Ireland spring 
from moral causes, the removal of which will bring prosperity. 
The persecution of Jews in Russia, the civil wars in Mexico, 
the repressive laws of Spain, show the unfitness of those 
nations for free institutions and national independence. Well 
said that noble Puritan, Milton, of the crowds who shout so 
fiercely for liberty and equality : 

They " bawl for freedom in their senseless mood, 
And still revolt when truth would set them free ; 

License they mean, when they cry liberty: 

For who loves that must first be-wise and good. 

But from that mark how far they rove we see 
For all this waste of wealth and loss of blood." 

It is known that in want of any other precedent, the Puri- 
tans adopted the Mosaic code, except where applicable to 
the Hebrews only. The circumstances were much alike. 
On the formation of their respective governments, their num- 
bers were nearly equal, and the after division into States, 
thirteen in number corresponded with the tribes, counting, 
as Moses did, the two sons of Joseph for their father, also 
making thirteen, a very interesting and suggestive coinci- 
dence, taken in connection with what is to be said. The laws 
were, as a general thing, adequate to their circumstances, and 
in humanity immeasurably in advance of those of England, 
especially as regards capital offences, and the apportionment 
and tenure of land; for the English, though a sincere and 



179 

noble people, seem always to have retained something of 
the harshness of character of their early progenitors, the 
Northmen. 

Let me say that, without claiming perfection for the 
fathers, we must in justice judge them according to the age 
in which they lived ; educated under severe and sumptuary 
laws, with treason and rebellion staring them in the face at 
every turn, they were somewhat intolerant, not because they 
denied the right of worshiping God according to the con- 
science, as did the mother country, but simply to preserve 
their own liberty, determined not to part with their own 
freedom to any power, especially that one the fundamental 
principle of which was persecution, and to which liberty of 
conscience was an unknown term. 

Of the measures finally adopted by the settlers for fixing 
a State polity, the first record appears in notes of Henry 
Wolcott, Jr., taken at the delivery of a discourse in the little 
meeting-house on the public square in Hartford, by Rev. 
Thomas Hooker, June 10, 1638, a polity the fruit of which 
is the New England of to-day. Hume says : " The precious 
spark of liberty had been kindled and preserved by the 
Puritans alone, and it was to this sect, whose principles 
appear so frivolous, and habits so ridiculous, that the Eng- 
lish owe the whole freedom of their constitution." 

Congregationalism is eminently democratic in the best 
sense of the term, elevating to a higher level, not, as many 
suppose, depressing all to the lowest one ; for equality in the 
sight of God produces equality in the sight of law, and social 
equality, varied only by considerations of character, official 
position, and the accident of wealth ; the latter of little value 
in estimating title to honor with those themselves virtuous 
and refined. 

The Puritans wished to found churches cleansed of all 
superimposed devices of man, and which, entirely distinct, 
were yet one in Christ as the only and all-sufficient head, and 
in which the spirit of Christ shadowed forth in the simplest 
types or ordinances was a living power. 



i8o 

There must be, owing to the constitution of man, a 
power which will control his passions. This may be spiritual 
or civil ; but in most of human history it has been a civil 
power dominated by a spiritual, and that, too, by one, the 
scriptures of truth assure us, adverse to the interests of the 
human race. The Puritan gave this power to God, and that 
too, a holy God, and thus the government approached per- 
fection as nearly as possible in a world not yet "become the 
kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ." We had theocracy 
as applied to the individual, and democracy as applied to the 
State, viz. : a theocratic democracy. As the individual owed 
allegiance to God, then to the State, of course all acting on 
such principles would make a perfect State, not by enactment 
of statute, but by the law of conscience, for to such, in an 
important sense, there is no law. For this reason the Bible, 
the guide of the Puritan and the charter of liberty, is under 
the ban of every tyrant, whether he wears the ermine or the 
surplice, whether he wields the sword or brandishes the keys. 
By this sign recognition is infallible. 

As types are prophecies, of which Scripture is full, and as 
all point to the suffering or reigning Savioiir, let us see how 
God by His Providence interprets the grand declaration 
" Behold I create new heavens and a hew earth." As the 
destruction of Jerusalem typified the final consummation, so 
Isaiah lxv, 17, we have reason to believe, foreshadows two 
events no less stupendous, but more glorious in contemplation. 

This passage is expressly connected with the exaltation of 
the Gentiles and the adoption of a people for himself in 
place of those rejected of God. Though the advent of the 
Messiah inspired the prophetic pen, no immediate glory 
would follow that amazing event, but rather a sword. The 
robes of the bride were for long ages to be sackcloth, and 
her veil the deepest black ; and it was not until the 21st of 
December, 1620, the Bible was given an opportunity to 
mould a nation according to the spirit of the gospel. Then 
it was, as Canning said, " Protestantism* turned to the new 
world, to redress the balance of the old." Then, and never 



i8i 

before, was erected a fulcrum, on which might rest a divine 
lever mightier than that of the dream of Archimedes, working 
slowly but surely through the enfranchised word, and ulti- 
mately to topple over the monuments of human pride and 
power, placing on sure foundation the stone which should fill 
the earth. Prior to that time, even from the days of Wick- 
liffe, though the morning star had begun to rise, still darkness 
covered the nations. How barren was literature up to the 
time of Luther! How feeble was invention ! How meager 
science ! How dead the humanities of life ! This was a 
golden period for prelacy, but of gloom for the human race. 
Then it was the entrance of the word brought light, and also 
a sword ; but in the moment of extremity the church, lifted to 
the skies, and borne on "the two wings of a great eagle" 
to a wilderness at the world's end, alighted on the rock 
of Plymouth, and its footfall, if unobserved on earth, stirred 
the hosts of heaven. Kossuth said : " The musketry of the 
farmers at Lexington and Concord was heard around the 
world." So was felt the advent of the feeble, suffering 
church in New England. Little as the event appeared, all 
were called upon to " sing unto the Lord a new song, and his 
praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, 
and all that is therein, the isles and the inhabitants thereof." 
" Let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from 
the top of the mountains." Mighty changes were consequent 
on the planting of the standard of liberty on the snowy hills 
of Massachusetts on that gloomy day of December. We 
must not judge by appearance only, for sorrow seems the first 
lot of every great and useful conception. As we compare the 
condition of the world now with what it was in 1620, we can 
but exclaim : " Thou hast made all things new. Thou hast 
indeed made us to ride on the high places of the earth, that 
we might eat the increase of the fields and to suck honey 
out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock." The world 
took from that moment a new start. A returned missionary 
said, after seeing how things are done in heathen lands, it 
seemed to him " a man could not drive a nail right without 



182 

the gospel." We know Christianity invigorates the mind, 
elevates the character, expels low thoughts by ennobling 
conceptions of God, inspires energy, utilizes every faculty, 
arouses invention, discovers new agencies, and new and 
better ways of doing all things. 

Under this heaven-born stimulus "what hath God 
wrought ! " Since the Puritan consecrated the new world to 
God, what mortal and physical results have ensued ! The 
very thought fills one with amazement ; yet all have emanated 
from an energy before latent in His word, working its legiti- 
mate effects on man, when liberated and allowed full play. 
This is the true philosopher's stone. The application of the 
power of steam, infinitely more surprising and beneficent 
than any or all of the seven wonders of the world united, 
has changed every commercial relation and enlarged in an 
unlimited degree the control of man over the forces of 
nature. This agency we owe to John Fitch, born near the 
boundary of Hartford and South Windsor, and within the 
sound of the bell of this church, hastening the time when, 
as President Stiles translates it, " There shall be a great 
traveling to and fro." The locomotive has done its share in 
making ready for the advent, we believe. " Prepare ye the way 
of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our 
God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and 
hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, 
and the rough places plain : and the Glory of the Lord shall 
be revealed." This sublime oriental figure, announcing the 
dignity of the coming Messiah, met no literal fulfillment in 
the mortal life of the Man of Sorrow, in whom, to human 
eyes, " there was no beauty that we should desire him," and 
having made but one triumphal progress of two miles, down 
the narrow, precipitous, and stony path of the declivity of 
Olivet, riding " meek and lowly " on an ass' colt, on his way to 
execution, and with eyes filled with tears at the miseries 
about to fall on Jerusalem. But there is a wonderful fulfill- 
ment as he enters the New World, where " the chariots are 
with shining steel in the day of his preparation." " They 



183 

shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings." 
This last prophecy of Nahum probably has a deeper signifi- 
cance than the overthrow of Nineveh. Have we not often 
fallen into the error of the Jew, who mistakes shadow for sub- 
stance ? The spirit of Prophecy is to testify of Jesus, and 
the fifteenth verse of the first chapter, referring to the same 
war of Nebuchadnezzar is expressly quoted as applicable to 
the reign of Christ. Besides, Scripture declares, all these 
things happened as " tupoi," figures, for us on whom the 
ends of the world are come. Such certainly was the under- 
standing of the Old Testament, by the writers of the New. 
God gave not this power for evil, as well as good, to Philip 
2d, or a Tamerlane, but reserved it for the new era, when the 
humanities taught by our Lord had softened the hearts of 
men and wrought in them a sense of brotherhood, making 
them safer custodians of such mighty agencies. The world 
is now dependent in most of its commercial transactions upon 
the telegraph and telephone, New England inventions, among 
the latent powers of this new creation, which no doubt still 
contains many new forces and applications of old ones yet 
undiscovered. Let us briefly consider the workings of evan- 
gelical truth. in its physical results in New England, aside 
from the moral power thus created ; particularly as exempli- 
fied in this community by members of this church on those 
trained under the same energizing influences. 

To Horace Wells, M.D., a member of this church, the 
world is indebted for the introduction of the principle of 
anaesthesia in surgery, an event the most important, in that 
department, of this century and perhaps of any age. The cot- 
ton gin, invented by Whitney of New Haven, added hundreds 
of millions to the wealth of this country. The sewing-machine 
is a constant source of wonder, more marvelous and infinitely 
more useful than the pyramids. Two members of this 
church, Dr. Mason F. Cogswell and Rev. Thomas H. Gallau- 
det, opened the avenue of knowledge and religion to the 
large class of deaf mutes; practically making the deaf to 
hear and dumb to speak. A son of a member of this church 



revolutionized the art of war by land and sea, through the 
discovery of the superiority of breech-loading and revolving 
arms, and the submarine torpedo; out of which grew breech- 
loading and rifled cannon, and the Gatling gun, an invention of 
a member of a sister Congregational Church. Now no nation 
ventures on the arbitrament of battle without Connecticut 
arms and munitions, and relies, whether English, French, or 
Russian, as certainly on these as on the treasury of the 
Rothschilds. God's way of ending wars would seem to be 
in keeping with his usual plans, precisely the opposite from 
human expectations, viz., making it so destructive that it will 
not be lightly undertaken, and so costly that money rather 
than arms will decide the issue: and the gold he will give 
and has given, as we shall see, to those best fitted to use it 
for His glory. The very thunderbolts are harnessed to the 
chariot of science and used as motive power, and Morse, 
born in Charlestown, now to all intents united to Cambridge 
(which saw the natal day of this Society), was allowed to 
know more than the wisest of the Patriarchs, and could 
have replied in the affirmative to the question put to Job, 
" Canst thou send lightnings that they may go and say unlo 
thee ' Here we are ?'" for the electric fluid is man's busiest 
servant. Vast, also, has been the change in the heathen 
world under the labors of such men as Samuel J. Mills of 
Torrington, Conn., who originated the American Missionary 
Society, and was prominent among the founders of the Col- 
onization Society, and Dr. Judson of Massachusetts, Mission- 
ary to India, showing that the stone cut out without hands is 
fulfilling its expansion, and its weight is recognized in the 
extremities of the earth. They were born respectively in 
1783 and 1788, near the date of the formation of the govern- 
ment, which was in 1787. 

We have spoken of a few only of the remarkable discov- 
eries of modern times, but they are innumerable. There 
have been issued from the Patent Office 250,000 patents, a 
vast proportion of which have been to New England, and 
especially Connecticut, which takes the lead relatively. In 



i8 5 

1 88 1 there were issued to the people in this State 693 patents, 
or one to every 829 inhabitants, while in North Carolina there 
were 64, or one to every 21,871 inhabitants; South Carolina 
45, or one to 22,123; Mississippi 41, or one to 27,599. No 
doubt the patents issued to other States would show a 
very large proportion of the patentees were of New England 
origin, especially at the West, the population of which, w T hen 
not immigrants from Europe, generally claims New England 
as its birthplace. 

In speaking of the influence of the Puritan faith in arousing 
a benevolent spirit, we should not in this connection omit men- 
tion of the many saintly men who once sat where you do now, 
and who seem to demand remembrance by you on this joyful 
yet solemn occasion. It would be impossible to speak of all, 
but I will recall to your remembrance, besides the founders 
of that most beneficent institution, the American Asylum, 
the present of the Athaeneum by that man, small of stature 
but large of heart, Daniel Wads worth, which was built upon a 
spot consecrated by so many incidents connected with the 
Revolution, and by the presence of the illustrious Washington, 
who there with Lafayette and Rochambeau devised a plan for 
capturing Cornwallis. The Retreat for the Insane, a mother 
institution of that kind, was largely built by contributions from 
this church. The Farm School, Widow's Home, the Hospital, 
mainly built through the munificence of David Watkinson, to 
whom also the city owes the princely gift of the library of 
reference ; the Warburton Chapel, the gift of John Warburton 
and his estimable wife ; the royal bequest of $700,000 to Yale 
by Henry L. Ellsworth, though failing in part, yet testified to 
his regard for learning. The splendid endowment of the 
Theological Seminary by James B. Hosmer, gave an impulse 
to that institution which will be felt by the latest generations. 
These are some of the largest benefactors, but their gifts fall 
below the contributions from this church which have flowed in 
a perennial stream to the isles of the sea, a shower which has 
made many a wilderness a fruitful field, and which has nerved 
a vast number who are instilling into the West and South 



1 86 

the energy and spirit of New England. We can merely hint 
at these devout men whose works have not only gone before 
them, but whose example has left an ever increasing blessing 
behind. 

But a study of the scriptures and of the Divine workings 
in the natural world, shows us another remarkable fulfillment 
of prophecy in the new earth. When this development of 
providence was to take place, with the latent moral, commer- 
cial, mechanical, scientific, agricultural, and telluric potential- 
ities connected therewith, one element more was wanting to 
render effective these mighty agencies, the power which alone 
could set them all in motion, viz., money, which is to commerce 
as steam to the engine. 

This was so evident that as early as 1846 it was confidently 
foretold, owing to the fulfillment of prophecies and the 
necessities engendered by enormous commercial transac- 
tions, arising from the use of steam and other inventions, 
that the 17th verse of the 60th chapter of Isaiah would soon 
receive fulfillment. " For brass I will bring gold, and for 
iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones 
iron: and I will also make thy officers peace and thy exactors 
righteousness ;" and the very places, California and Austra- 
lia, were designated where God had possibly hidden his 
treasures. The discovery of gold at Sutter's mill in Cali- 
fornia, and the opening of that treasure house, which first 
startled the country, was within two years from that time 
announced to the world by the Rev. Prof. C. S. Lyman of 
Yale, a Congregational clergyman, born within the original 
limits of the town of Hartford, but then residing for his 
health in that region. Prof. Lyman is of Puritan descent, 
and the ancestral name is carved on the monument in the 
cemetery of this church. These discoveries have doubled 
the amount of the precious metals within thirty-four years. 
But there is another remarkable circumstance connected 
with, this, viz. : nearly all the vast treasures of gold, silver, 
brass (or copper), petroleum, iron, etc., lie in the tract which 
by patent or charter was confirmed to New England ; for the 
limits extended from the 40 to the 48 of north latitude, 



i8 7 

with practical control from 34 to 38 , also, and from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, taking in the great lakes on 
the north, and Maryland on the south, and containing within 
the boundaries most of the oil wells, agricultural and mineral 
wealth of the country. The limits were afterward reduced 
to the first figures. The foot of the Pilgrim was to transform 
the desert into an Eden, for thus had Isaiah sung, "The 
Lord shall comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste 
places, He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert 
like the garden of the Lord." It is a fact worthy of notice 
that God has also greatly prospered Great Britain in this 
respect; thus giving his especial favors to the two nations 
serving him with the purest faith. 

We have now spoken of the liberation of the word of God 
and the opportunity of showing its power. 

From that moment forces were at work which assuredly 
would eventuate in a new earth, and all traceable to the 
entrance of truth upon a new era and under happier auspices, 
the moral atmosphere was cleared, stars in scripture figures 
and hieroglyphics put for kings and often so used fell from 
heaven, or seat of power, old governments would be remodeled 
and reformed; new conditions replace the old, and all things 
were to be made new. The subject of education, lying as it 
does at the foundation of all prosperity in the State, could 
not be omitted in any formal treatise, but time forbids more 
than the briefest allusion thereto. As a republican form of 
government cannot exist long without intelligence and virtue, 
an axiom in the estimation of all parties, there is less need of 
enlarging upon the subject. But in passing let me throw 
out a suggestion, viz., that it is possible the attempt to pro- 
duce homogeneousness by the present school system, though 
theoretically practicable, may prove inadequate where most 
necessary, owing to the hostility of a great religious sect, 
nearly equaling the united members of all Evangelical 
churches. The same arguments are forcibly used as against 
the standing order, both resting upon the same basis; and the 
same opposition is encountered and likely at no distant day to 



be more influential, among the very ones most needing the 
vivifying influences of a New England education. If we open 
our eyes we cannot avoid seeing the effect of the Puritan and 
Congregational idea of law, liberty, and religion as developed 
in the body politic, and as manifested in national characteris- 
tics. It is seen in the intelligence and high moral tone of the 
people, in their rapid expansion, their unbounded energy, their 
inventive genius, their obedience to authority, their universal 
sympathy with the oppressed and suffering, whether by the 
tyranny of man, or providence of God ; their love of learn- 
ing and the arts of peace ; and above all in regard for right. 
We have noted a few results, since in the shades of night 
Brewster and Bradford, in the secret chambers of Braintree 
and Scrooby, devised measures to emancipate themselves and 
religion from the merciless tyrant Archbishop Laud and the 
English King. Since that time there has been a vast 
increase not only in Congregational churches, but in many 
other denominations, which, springing into life from the same 
impelling causes and partaking of the same spirit, have aided 
greatly in making this a Christian nation. Indeed, while one 
hundred years ago Congregationalists comprised the great 
body of Evangelical churches, they are at present numerically 
surpassed by several other denominations. But we claim for 
the Congregationalism of the Puritans most that is efficient in 
other sects, even in the Episcopal, since the example of the 
former was eminently contagious and what there was of 
spirituality in the latter was owing to the active exercise of 
the Puritan element, which had not utterly forsaken the 
Church of England on the departure of the Separatists. The 
number of Congregationalists in 1881 was 383,685, while 
of Baptists there are 2,394,472 communicants. Of the 
Methodist Episcopal (North) 1,680,779; (South), 828,013; 
of Romanists, 6,174,202 ; Presbyterians 693,347. 

Now there must be some great cause for the increase of 
Congregationalism being relatively so slow, for as Dr. Patton 
says, " If religion had been only brain work we should have 
led all the denominations." 



1 89 

The causes of the slow growth of Congregationalism are, 
ist. The half way Covenant, so called. 2cl. The unyielding 
position of the clergy as respects the standing order. 3d. 
Making no attempt at proselytism ; not objecting to its 
members uniting with other denominations, especially the 
Presbyterian. 4th. The question of slavery. 5th. The high 
culture demanded of the clergy and the revolt of democracy, 
which brooks no claim to superiority, whether mental, moral, 
social, or political. 6th. The discourses not best adapted to 
the capacities and wants of the people. 

From want of time we shall omit speaking upon these 
causes except the last. I hope my clerical friends will not 
think the remarks of the writer intrusive on their territory, 
but rather the suggestion of a patient to his learned physi- 
cians, of whose remedies he has had much personal experience. 
He with due humility applies to himself the remark made by 
President Stiles in this pulpit exactly one hundred years ago 
while addressing Gov. Jonathan Trumbull, the Legislature, 
and the clergy : ndvro)v rtiv dyliov eAaxiSTorepog eXaxuroTdron' . 

The sixth reason is, people are becoming less Calvinistic 
and more Arminian in their way of thinking. There seems, 
unwittingly, to have been a tendency to the cultivation of a 
legal spirit, a fear of making grace too free, a dread of the 
low standard of obedience held by the Church of England, 
whose head wrote a book of sports suited for Sunday. This 
terror of the law may have originated in the constant contem- 
plation of their model, the Hebrew commonwealth, but once 
fixed it became hereditary in the church. This style of dis- 
course, no doubt, had advantages at that day, wanting at the 
present time. But whatever the cause, their sermons, though 
scholarly and orthodox, were dry, and did not engage the 
hearts of their hearers, nor do they seem to me always with 
clearness and assurance to have proclaimed the complete- 
ness, and all-sufficiency of the Atonement. The clouds 
which overhung Sinai, also shadowed Calvary, and the expir- 
ing but triumphant words, "It is finished," were but faintly 
heard by those trembling under the trumpets of the fiery 



190 

mount. The attributes of God as Sovereign, were more 
vigorously presented than the admirable and transcendent 
provision for abundant pardon, as revealed in the New Testa- 
ment, so that the kiss of "righteousness and peace" seemed 
rather a matter of ceremony than affection. By the glare of 
Sinai's lightnings, God reveals the Judge, establishing 
authority, rather than illustrating mercy. Law rather than 
love was the motive power. The fact is, men are miniatures 
of the God they worship. The character of Moloch was well 
reflected in the Canaanite, who immolated in the monster's 
brazen arms the innocent babe. A deity all mercy, and with 
no hatred of sin, or one forgiving by priestly manipulation, 
with no change of heart, or reformation of life, will have a 
constituency regardless of sin, and unworthy of trust. The 
God of the Puritan was feebly photographed in the Puritan 
church. To that, he was holy, and could not look on sin 
without abhorrence ; severe to mark iniquity, just, and whose 
wrath was feared more than his love attracted. 

Thus, the Puritan reflected a similar character — shunning 
every legal lapse with holy fear ; severe to himself, if kind to 
others; just, if not always merciful; to whom duty, taking 
precedence of love, was the cardinal virtue; to whom a lie 
was not only a sin, but a crime amenable to law ; to whom the 
day of rest was the Sabbath of the Jew; stern in dealing 
with transgressors ; yet alway a man to be relied on in every 
business or situation ; working diligently and conscientiously 
in the fulfillment of every obligation to God or man; and 
with a morality severe, even to austerity. 

Now, as these ideas must have, in part at least, been 
derived from the clergy, their preaching undoubtedly tinged 
the Puritan faith. This was inevitable. Judging of the 
impressions on others by that made on myself by many years 
of pulpit instruction, I cannot but think there was obscurity 
in presenting the grounds of salvation. The " open door " 
seemed but a gate ajar, and grace the hard-earned compen- 
sation of good resolves, pungent sorrow, scrupulous obedi- 
ence ; and the yoke of Christ an additional burthen to the 



191 

law ; that salvation was yea and nay, not yea and amen ; that 
success was by no means assured to the most penitent and 
earnest. I do not say this doctrine was preached ; but as the 
natural tendency of men is to rely on personal merit, at least 
as supplemental, that error was not sufficiently guarded 
against. It was many years before it was given me to learn, 
from an unexpected quarter, the divine glory in a Saviour 
adapted to every want ; that He was a free and unspeakable 
gift, needing no supplemental works to render effectual His 
all-sufficient atonement. The theology I had before learned, 
was that sanctification was a necessary precedent of jus- 
tification. These statements are illustrated by the history 
of that most excellent man, John Wareham, who came 
to Windsor with the party of Henry Wolcott, and was 
their first and well beloved pastor, who, history asserts, 
was always so oppressed with a sense of unworthiness and 
his lost condition by nature and legal obstacles, that he 
scarcely dared partake of the communion and went sorrow- 
ing all his days. His staunch Calvinism still held him in 
the grasp of original sin. The great revival under Edwards 
(1740) according to his own account, presented many terrible 
examples of the effect of these somber, if not distorted, 
views of the relations of law to grace, and even leading to 
suicide. But we need not seek the records of antiquity for 
examples. I say this as no reproach to revivals ; they are a 
blessed provision for the exhibition of the sovereignty and 
mercy of God ; but there must have been something cloudy 
in the presentation of the best news man ever received, 
while the heart was longing for its reception, and yet could 
not understand. The crowded rink, five years ago, testified 
in an unmistakable manner, not so much to the learning and 
oratory of the men mighty in Scripture, and who three times 
a day for months filled the largest building in the city to 
overflowing, as to the longing men have to know God's way 
of saving the soul, and to hear the news in a manner all 
could comprehend. 

It is difficult to estimate the influence of the clergy and 



192 

of the Congregational principle upon the State aside from the 
church. It is certain, Congregationalism greatly favored 
patriotism. The clergy and church members were to a man 
strong Federalists, and went in heartily for the war of inde- 
pendence, while Episcopalians were as exclusively Tories. 
It is believed Jefferson obtained his ideas of State organiza- 
tion from the polity of the Baptist Church, an eminently 
Congregational order, and thus he was prepared to aid in the 
establishment of the Government of the United States, in 
which he was ably supported by the statesmen of New Eng- 
land, and eminently so of Connecticut. The story of New 
England love of country is told when we learn that this 
State furnished 32,000 men for the regular army in the 
revolutionary war, besides defending her own borders at her 
own expense, a number equal to the whole male population 
capable of bearing arms. At one time Connecticut troops 
formed one-half of the regular army. A complete history 
of the military service of members of this society from its 
organization would make a volume of very great interest, a 
glorious appendix to an extraordinary record, beginning with 
the storming of the Pequot fort defended by 600 warriors of 
the fiercest tribe in New England, by- 77 men, one-half of 
whom were from this Society, embracing one-half the military 
force of the three towns which at a later day formed Con- 
necticut, and ending with the war of the Rebellion, in which 
twenty-nine members of this society were engaged, of whom 
six fell in battle or died from diseases incident to the 
camp, three of whom were sons of officers of the church, 
two being sons of Deacon Weld, and one a son of Deacon 
W. W. House, and to these we may add the knightly soldier, 
Major Camp, educated in this church, who also fell in battle. 
We have now endeavored to show how the prophecies of 
a new earth have their fulfillment, typically, in the develop- 
ments of this favored age and land ; foreshadowing the more 
glorious state, when Christ shall assume by his own right 
the kingdom offered him by the prince of this world, 1800 
years ago, and which the usurper has firmly held during the 



193 

ages past. We cannot trust to the wisdom of unregenerate 
men for the preservation of the institutions of our fathers, 
our liberties, or the continuance of our favored condition ; 
the majority governs, and as yet is apparently not the will- 
ing servant of the Almighty. All hope rests in the assured 
promises of the God of our fathers. The usurper has not 
abandoned his claim, and it does not require an ear of pecul- 
iar sensitiveness to detect the mutterings of coming storms, 
and the quarter from which they will burst ; but while " sus- 
tinet" follows "transtulit" on the banner of our State, and 
the eagle on the national standard recalls the vision of St. 
John, and the ever-protecting wing of the Providence of 
God, we may be assured his plans of beneficence will move 
steadily and sublimely on to accomplishment. Nor will he 
suffer that vine to be plucked up which his own right hand 
planted, blessed as it has been, by the incense of " fervent 
and effectual prayer," watered abundantly with the tears of 
exiles and of martyrs, and most richly fertilized by the blood 
of their sons, though the wall built around it with solicitude 
by the Pilgrims has crumbled in many a place, and " the 
wild beast of the field " (the wolves of the commune) prowl 
around, and " the boar from the woods " of Italy's deadly 
Avernus, even now, burrows under the foundations thereof. 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE IN EARLY TIMES. 

BY MRS. LUCIUS CURTIS. 

The social and domestic life of any people is, from the 
nature of the case, hidden from the public eye. It falls into 
the shadow of their religious and political life. Important 
as it is, and eager as we are to look into the home life of the 
early days of our ancestors to see their daily occupations 
and the interplay of family affection, much must be pictured 
by our imagination from the slender resources of a few 
25 



194 

records. In respect to the Pilgrims and Puritans many 
affirm that they had no social life, but only religious convic- 
tions and the single purpose to save their souls. But we 
might expect, according to the promise of our Saviour, that in 
seeking first the kingdom of God other good things will be 
added to them. It may be well to take a backward glance 
at some of the events of the years of preparation for the 
founding of a new State. The tree which for a thousand 
years had grown on the soil of England, rooted in the Anglo- 
Saxon race, and cultured by Christianity, was to shed its 
fruits on a soil far remote from its beginning. Perhaps in a 
greater degree than the common mind perceives, manners and 
customs are affected by public events. As we turn the pages 
of the history of these many years, the years of war between 
king and nobles, of strife for supremacy between England 
and France, when the Church itself was seeking for the 
glory of the world, we get few glimpses of joyous domestic 
life. Anarchy and ignorance were foes to the peace of home. 
There had been little improvement in the condition of the 
rural population since the Romans left the island. Tillage 
of the land was poor, famine and pestilence held sway, and 
even the ecclesiastics lived in coarse luxury. The darkness 
deepened into night, in the first half of the fifteenth cen- 
tury. But just at this time, the dawn began to appear. The 
invention of printing, the discovery of America, and the 
mighty work of Luther, which brought light from Heaven to 
the humblest in condition, made a new civilization possible. 
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, in the last 
years of the reign of Elizabeth, who died in 1603, the methods 
of agriculture had improved, the farmers had an abundance 
of good food, and lived in better houses. English commerce 
developed rapidly. " London became a great city, where the 
gold and sugar of the new world were found side by side 
with the cotton of India, the silk of the east, and the woolen 
stuffs of England. The feudal castle had given way to the 
home with its chimney corner, its tapestried parlor, its 
quaintly carved chairs and cabinets, its silver plate. There 



195 

came at this time a mighty impulse to literature ; it was the 
age of Spenser and Shakespeare. The whole prose litera- 
ture of England had grown up, since the translation of the 
Scriptures by Tyndale and Coverdale." 

A leading writer has said, " We must not picture the early 
Puritan as a gloomy fanatic. The country gentleman studied 
theology, but he might have known something of literature. 
Milton's father, business man as he was, composed madrigals 
and sacred songs. In Milton himself (born in 1608) we see 
the completest type of Puritanism. There was nothing 
narrow or illiberal in his training. He could write of — 

Sweetest Shakespere, Fancy's child, 
Warbling his native wood notes wild. 

He could revel in the " dim religious light " of the great 
cathedral as he hears — 

The pealing organ blow 

To the full-voiced choir below 

In service high and anthem clear. 

There was nothing ascetic in his look — with his long brown 
hair. He could have stood for a knight in chivalrous times. 
When we meet Robinson and Bradford in Leyden we find 
them honored, wise, and accomplished men. Robinson was 
sought as an aid by the professors in the university ; Brewster 
was teaching English (as he said after the Latin manner), 
having learned Latin in England. When they landed at 
Plymouth it was with the idea of an English home in their 
minds that they sought to subdue the wilderness. As they 
looked out in the spring upon the new scene, when warm 
and fair weather came, and the birds sang in the woods 
"most pleasantly," they were reminded that it was not an 
English landscape that they saw. There was a glow in the 
sunset sky far more gorgeous than that to which they had 
been accustomed. Close at their feet, on the edges of the 
woods, the trailing arbutus gave out its fragrance. As the 
season advanced they could see in profusion the wild rose, 
seeming to choose the rocky coast for its home. The gloom 
of the dense woods was lighted up with the bright flush of 
the azalea and the laurel ; the summer died in the glory of 



196 

the golden rod and cardinal flower; and the autumn leaves 
of bush and tree were aglow with splendor. The first 
summer of planting was well rewarded, and they had ample 
supplies of fish, wild turkey, and venison ; and their first 
Thanksgiving was celebrated. On that occasion of hilarity, 
"they exercised their arms, and for three days entertained 
Massasoit and ninety of his people, who made a contribution 
of five deer to the festivity." Dark days of sickness and 
famine were to come, when, as they said, "the best thing we 
could present to the sick was a lobster or a piece of fish 
without any bread, or anything else but a cup of fair spring 
water." In the simple life of those early days, there was 
opportunity for "plain living and high thinking." Though 
there were servants to do the menial work, the governor and 
the elder must often have turned their hands to humble 
employments. The Indian corn which they had to substitute 
for the wheat of England, was used for money and for nutri- 
ment. Learning from the Indians its various uses, and its 
method of culture, it became to them the stay and staff of 
bread. Having no mill, the corn must be pounded in a 
mortar ; many days must have been spent in fishing, but 
they could know that this was the Apostles' own calling, and 
as they said, " God fed them out of the sea for the most part." 
It was not without reason, that the head of the house in later 
days, at the annual Thanksgiving, with his eight children 
around the table, remembering the Indian corn, the food in 
the wilderness, would say to his household : " Of all other 
things on the table you may eat, but of this, the Indian 
pudding, you must eat." It was to be a remembrance, like the 
pot of manna laid up in the tabernacle. The same homely 
dish could inspire Joel Barlow, far away from home : 

" Ye Alps audacious, I sing not you, 
A softer theme I choose, the hasty pudding. 
Could these mild morsels in my numbers chime, 
And as they roll in substance, roll in rhyme, 
No more thy awkward unpoetic name 
Should shun the muse, or prejudice thy fame, 
But rising grateful to the accustomed ear, 
All lands should catchjit, and alhrealmsjevere." 



197 

Five years after the planting of the colony, the chronicler 
relates : " It hath pleased the Lord to give this plantation 
peace and health, and so to bless their labors, as they had 
corn sufficient, and some to spare for others ; " and in the 
seventh year we have the report of a visitor from the Dutch 
settlement of New Amsterdam, in which he gives a glowing 
account of the order and comfort of the little community ; of 
their kind treatment of the Indians ; of the dignity of their 
worship. Governor Bradford himself said in a poem on New 
England (every one in those days wrote verses) : 

All sorts of grain, which our own land doth 'yield 
Was hither brought and sown in every field. 
Here grow fine flowers many, and 'mongst those 
The fair white lily and the fragrant rose, 
Pears, apples, cherries, plums, quinces, and peach, 
Are now no dainties ; you may have of each. 

We have the portrait of only one of the Mayflower com- 
pany ; that of Edward Winslow, taken in London in 165 1, 
as is supposed by Vandyke ; and of the hundreds of volumes 
of Brewster's library, but few can be identified. We should 
think in these days that the good Elder was dressed in fancy 
costume. In his inventory, we read of a blue cloth coat, one 
violet color cloth coat, and one green waistcoat. 

It was customary for the women of our primitive colonists 
to wear beaver and other hats, with a feather, and their 
example was long imitated by their daughters. It is said 
that in the second quarter of the present century, for some 
reason they were not in use ; women began then " to draw 
the line at feathers." Roger Williams at one time argued 
from the scripture that women should not appear in the 
public assembly without veils, but it was without effect, and 
as early as 1647, Nathaniel Ward tells us that there were 
" five or six women in the colony," whose hearts were drawn 
after the fashions; they enquire, "what dress the queen is 
in this week." The same spirit appeared many years after, 
upon one of our Connecticut hills. A young, fair woman 
had come to be the bride of the minister in a country parish. 
The good deacon, who called upon her at once, said "he 



198 

hoped she would not be a setter forth of the fashions." 
Early Monday morning the same deacon's daughter came 
upon her side saddle to get the pattern of the riding habit 
which the young wife had worn to church the day before. 
The clothing of the early time must have been brought from 
England, and would naturally be such as was in use there. 
We are told that Pocahontas was married in Indian muslin, 
with a fillet of feathers and a veil of gauze upon her head ; 
perhaps the gift of her father's friend, Captain John Smith. 
In the succeeding emigration, from 1630 and after, there 
came over many country gentlemen of no inconsiderable 
fortune. Among them were Winthrop, who had a property 
of six or seven hundred pounds a year; Humphrey, son-in-law 
of the Earl of Lincoln ; Isaac Johnson, one of the richest of 
the emigrants, and his lovely wife, the lady Arabella, who 
" came from a paradise of plenty into a wilderness of wants ; " 
Theophilus Eaton, an eminent London tradesman ; Edward 
Hopkins, the governor of the Connecticut colony, whose 
descent and breeding, Cotton Mather tells us, fitted him to be 
a "Turkey merchant," and many others. There were more 
than a hundred university graduates, some of whom had been 
classmates with Jeremy Taylor, George, Herbert, and Milton. 
They brought with them "deferential manners, official stateli- 
ness, distinguishing apparel, with stiffness and elaborate eti- 
quette," and they brought an isolated community on the edge 
of a wilderness into relations with the world.* In 1633 the 
poems of the saintly George Herbert (with whom President 
Chauncey had been a fellow at Trinity) were published, and 
it is supposed that his emigration, and that of Cotton and 
other eminent ministers suggested those well known lines : 

" Religion stands on tip-toe in our land, 
Ready to pass to the American strand." 

In the inventories at the death of some of the ministers, 
articles of luxury are noted, as in the will of Thomas Shepard, 



* Cotton Mather said years after, that Roger Williams " had a wind- 
mill in his head." Perhaps it was necessary as a means of blowing 
away some of the chaff of routine and custom. 



i 9 9 

1649 : " To my son Thomas my best silver tankard, my best 
best black suit and cloak." To another son " one of my long 
silver bowls; " to a friend " my velvet cloak." In that of the 
Rev. N. Rogers of Ipswich, 1658, a watch, answering as a 
clock, and a rich " canopy bed." Winthrop could entertain 
guests in the large hall of his house with stately politeness, 
and he notes " upon consideration of the inconveniences 
which had grown in England by drinking one to another he 
restrained it at his own table, and wished others to do so, so 
it grew little by little into disuse." The pictures of some of 
these men which can be seen to-day, — Winslow with his gen- 
tle face, his starched ruff, Winthrop with his delicate features, 
and his long brown hair and full beard, and his plaited ruffles, 
Charles Chauncey (born in 1599,) with his long, flowing grey 
wig, his bands, and olive green robe, do not look like the grim 
Puritans we supposed them to be. They had not yet come 
under the oppressive severity of toil, which benumbs the 
power of emotion. Their high resolve which led them to 
abandon the ease of a settled habitation, must have given 
something of nobility to their aspect. 

On the voyage of the Arabella, we are told how the amuse- 
ment of the children was provided for. " Our children and 
others that were sick and lay groaning in our cabins we 
fetched out, and having stretched a rope from the steerage 
to the mainmast, we made them stand, some on one side, and 
some on the other, and swing it up and down till they were 
weary, and by this means they soon grew well and merry." 
It seems like a fish story indeed, when the same chronicle 
tells us that when near the Isles of Shoals, in less than two 
hours, with a few hooks they took sixty-seven codfish, some 
a yard and a half long, and a yard in compass. The moon 
seemed smaller to them than when in England, which was 
remarkable for this " great country." We have a good 
example of the " large stories," even of that early day. A 
skipper had appeared from Maine, at an English port, with 
cargoes in three successive years respectively, in a schooner, 
a brig, and finally a large ship. On being rallied about the 



200 

rapid increase of his vessel, as if it had grown while crossing 
the sea, he replied, that " they built ship-stuff in lengths and 
sawed sections of it off at pleasure, according to the voyage." 
We are glad to know what the travelers in the Arabella had 
to eat after their tedious voyage. On landing at Salem, 
" they supplied us a good venison pasty, and good beer. In 
the morning the rest of our people went on shore, off Cape 
Ann, to gather a store of strawberries." (A later traveler 
tells us that he saw in Boston strawberries two inches about ; 
cultivated ones, we suppose.) 

We have an account of an official visit of the authorities, 
civil, military, and ecclesiastic, to the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 
1632. Brewster and Bradford came to meet them. They 
were feasted every day at the several houses. On the Lord's 
day there was a sacrament, and in the afternoon Roger Wil- 
liams propounded a question — several spoke. When this was 
ended, the deacon, Mr. Fuller, put the congregation in mind 
of the duty of contribution, whereupon the governor and all 
the rest went down to the deacon's seat and put into the 
box, and then returned. 

The " fame of the pleasant lands " of Connecticut had 
early reached England. Its leading towns, New Haven and 
Hartford, were settled by some of the richest and best of the 
colonies, and as it grew steadily in numbers and wealth it 
soon acquired the name of the land of " steady habits." In 
the planting of towns, we find some notes of the quaint 
simplicity of the time. Of one minister, it was said, " with 
the youth he took great pains, and he was a tree of knowl- 
edge with fruit which the children could reach." An inhabi- 
tant of Ipswich, living at a distance, absented himself, with 
his wife, from public worship. The General Court empowered 
the selectmen to sell the farm, so that they might live nearer to 
the sanctuary, and be able more conveniently to attend upon 
its religious services. In 1670 constables were instructed to 
prevent young persons from being out late in the evening, 
especially Sabbath, lecture, and training day evenings. The 
boys were closely watched at church. An inhabitant of one 



201 

town was complained of, because he had a servant many 
years and had not taught him to read. The fire-places, says 
one, were large enough to admit a four-foot log, and the 
children might sit in the corners and look up at the stars. 
Let no one, says another, make a jest of pumpkins, for with 
this food the Lord was pleased to feed his people to their 
good content, ere corn and cattle were increased. 

'Stead of pottage and puddings, and custards and pies, 
Our turnips and parsnips are common supplies ; 
We have pumpkins at morn, and pumpkins at noon, 
If it was not for pumpkins we should be undone. 

In a book published in London in 1643, New England's 
First Fruits, the colonists say: "We have planted fifty 
towns and villages, built thirty or forty churches, and more 
ministers' houses, a castle, a college, prisons, forts, coastways, 
and causeways many, no public hand reaching out any help ; 
having comfortable houses, gardens, orchards, grounds, fenced 
cornfields, etc." The ordinary dress of the time was more 
picturesque than in our own day. The color of the doublet 
universally worn by men was often red. Beneath the doublet 
was worn the waistcoat, which in the poorer classes was of 
cotton, in the richer was frequently of silk and much elabo- 
rated. The sleeves were slashed for the purpose of displaying 
the linen below. The bands of the working men and the 
ruffs of the gentry were starched to extreme stiffness. The 
outermost covering of all was the cloak. As early as 1634 
there was legislation against " slashed apparel, immoderate 
great sleeves, long wigs, gold, silver, or thread lace, knots of 
ribbon, double ruffs and cuffs," reasoning that such super- 
fluities tended to " the nourishing of pride and exhausting 
men's estate, and of evil example." Such legislation was not 
new. In the reign of Mary, the law had regulated the size 
of the shoe at the toe. But it was in vain, for the peaks of 
the shoes had grown so large that " men could hardly kneel 
in the house of the Lord." The authorities were foiled in 
their attempts to prevent women from arranging their sleeves 
in the most captivating manner. In 165 1, the General Court 
26 



202 

ordered that if a man was not worth two hundred pounds, he 
should not wear gold or silver lace or buttons, and because of 
the scarcity of leather, should not walk in great boots. These 
laws were soon repealed, and it is believed that they sprung 
not so much from unworldliness, as from a desire to check 
the rising independence which asserted itself in the dress of 
the poorer classes ; and the expense which they incurred 
prevented them from contributing to the public good. 

Winthrop's little bark, the " Blessing of the Bay," another, 
the " White Angel," and the "Trial" the first ship built at Bos- 
ton, were the precursors of the shipping of the future, which 
were to bring the products of the West Indies and the con- 
tents of the shops of London to the homes of the New 
World. 

Haste and necessity had made plain houses the rule at 
first, and those who had wealth were advised to abstain from 
all superfluous expense and to reserve their money for the 
public use. The New Haven people were thought to have 
laid out too much of their stock and estates in building fair 
and stately houses. Allerton, who went among them from 
Plymouth, built a " grand house " upon the creek. The Rev. 
Mr. Whitefi eld's house, built at Guilford in 1639, ls sa ^ to De 
the oldest house in the United States now standing as origin- 
ally built. 

At the time of Winthrop's death, 1649, a traveler was 
already speaking of Boston, as a city-like town, and calling 
attention to its large and beautiful buildings; and as rich 
London merchants came to reside, they built houses of great 
size and elegance, many of them with spacious grounds and 
large gardens. The Province house, built in 1679, is de- 
scribed as having " a palatial doorway, a spacious hall, carved 
balustrades, paneled and corniced parlors." It figures in 
Hawthorne's romance and became afterwards the residence 
of the royal governors. The Frankland house, described by 
Cooper in one of his stories, had great richness of decoration. 
The father of Samuel Adams was not one of the " merchant 
princes " of the day; he was a respectable citizen, living com- 
fortably and honorably; his house stood in a spacious garden, 



203 

looking out upon the harbor, surrounded by an observatory. 
We have but few elements of a Puritan city, in the descrip- 
tion given by a traveler in 1740 : " For their domestic 
amusements, the gentlemen and ladies walk the mall, and 
from thence adjourn to each other's houses, and spend the 
evening — those that are not disposed to attend the evening 
lecture, which they may do, if they please, six nights out of 
the seven, the year around. And the ladies here visit, drink 
tea, and indulge every little piece of gentility, and neglect 
the affairs of their families, with as good a grace as the finest 
ladies in London ! " Copley's pictures show us something of 
the showy dress of this period. Here is the portrait of the 
daughter of the Rev. Thomas Prince. She is dressed in a dark 
blue velvet robe, with muslin undersleeves reaching below the 
elbows. Four rows of pearl beads encircle the throat. 

In 1749 a society was established for promoting indus- 
try and frugality, and the fourth anniversary was publicly 
celebrated. In the afternoon, about 300 young spinsters 
appeared on the common, with their spinning wheels, draped 
in garments of their own weaving. An immense number of 
spectators were present. In 1766, in Franklin's examination 
at the bar of the House of Commons respecting the state of 
things in America, " What used to be the pride of America ? " 
was asked by a friendly member. " To indulge in the fash- 
ions and manufactures of Great Britain," was Franklin's 
reply. " What is now their pride ? " " To wear their old 
clothes over again, till they can make new ones." 

A fragment of a poem, by Benjamin Thompson, who 
graduated at Harvard in 1662, shows that women "made 
pies " and worked samplers in those days. The poem is on 
" The Fortification of Boston, begun by women." 

" A grand attempt some Amazonian Dames 
Contrive, whereby to glorify their names, 
A ruff from Boston Neck of mud and turf 
Reaching from side to side, from surf to surf, 
A tribe of female hands, but manly hearts, 
Forsake at home their pastry crust and tarts, 
To knead the dust, the samplers down they hurl, 
Their undulating silks they closely furl." 



204 

We have few notices of literary women. Mistress Anne 
Bradstreet, the daughter of Governor Thomas Dudley, wrote 
verses, which were published in London in 1650. One of 
her titles was, " An Exact Epitome of the Four Monarchies. 
The Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, Roman." She was a reader 
of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, and wrote an elegy upon it. 
Of Mercy Warren (born 1725), the daughter of James Otis, 
and wife of James Warren, a descendant of one of the 
settlers at Plymouth, we are told that her early education 
was greatly aided by the village clergyman, who lent her 
books and directed her tastes. She enjoyed the confidence 
of the great leaders of the Revolution, with many of whom 
she exchanged frequent letters. In one of her poems, she 
gives a long list of articles, imported, not of real necessity, 
which women could relinquish. We find that the ministers 
themselves held on to wigs till after the Revolution, though 
such good men as Judge Samuel Sewall battled all his life 
against them. They are certainly "becoming," as we see 
them in the pictures of Mr. Cotton, Samuel Willard, and 
Cotton Mather and many others. 

Great pomp and ceremony attended the departure of the 
dead. As Palfrey has said : " The living kept before themselves 
so constantly the vision of a Great Judge and of an assize, be- 
fore which they were to appear, that when one of their number 
set out for the court above they attended him, as far as they 
could go, with the circumstance which the event demanded." 
At the burial of Winthrop it was thought not too much to 
spend in his honor, to burn a barrel and a half of powder. 
Sewall records at the burial of the Rev. Thomas Shepard the 
names of the bearers, and adds : " It seems there were some 
verses, but none pinned on the herse. Scholars went before 
the herse." We have just been told at the burial of the poet 
Spenser many poets dropped verses upon the coffin. At wed- 
dings, at christenings, and at funerals, the parson and his 
wife — at funerals the bearers — also received presents of a stip- 
ulated kind, which were really fees and were faint traditions 
of earlier English customs. In 1741 the General Court en- 



205 

acted that no scarves or gloves except six pairs to the bearers 
and one pair to each member of the church or congregation 
where the deceased belongs, wine, rum, or rings, shall be 
given at any funeral upon the penalty of fifty pounds. At 
the funeral of a wicked man, Judge Sewall would not go, and 
in his diary says : " Had gloves sent me, but staid at home, 
and by that means lost a ring." Mr. L. M. Sargent tells us 
of Dr. Andrew Elliot, whose interleaved almanac discloses 
the fact that in thirty-two years he appears to have received 
2,900 pairs of gloves at funerals, weddings, and baptisms. Of 
these he sold about $640 worth. " What a glove and ring 
market the doctor's study must have been ; it might be truly 
said he was hand and glove with his parishioners." 

A note in Sewall's diary is in regard to the day of the week 
which should be Fast-day: " The governor (1702) moved that 
it be Friday, saying, ' Let us be Englishmen.' I spoke against 
making any distinction in the days of the week ; desired the 
same day might be for fasts and thanksgivings. Boston 
and Ipswich lecture led us to Thursday. Our brethren at 
Connecticut had Wednesday, which we applauded." 

The " training day " was a great day of amusement and relax- 
ation, and we are glad to know that there was one day which , 
interested the dignitaries of church and State, and gave the 
small boy an opportunity to follow the music and play the 
soldier. "Election day" was signalized not only by military 
parade, but by pastimes and festivities, in which the family 
took part, making the now famous "Election Cake" in honor 
of the occasion. We do not need to picture the scenes of 
Thanksgiving, with its public religious service, its family 
reunions, and loaded tables. It is known to us, not merely 
by tradition, but in our own joyous celebration. The 
descendants of the Pilgrims, from far and near, then become 
themselves pilgrims to their early home, to exchange family 
greetings, and to renew the associations of childhood. 

Of the music of all these years there is little to be said. It 
is painful to think that the fathers could suppose that instru- 
mental music was forbidden by such a text as Amos 5, 



206 

xxxiii, " I will not hear the noise of thy viols ; " that they 
could ignore such commands as " Praise him with stringed 
instruments and organs." We must remember that these 
men were, in a measure, enthralled by the ignorance and 
superstition of the age. There were false interpretations of 
Scripture, on which were founded great wrongs as well as 
follies. 

It pleases us to record a note from Winthrop's Journal : 
"We received a letter at the General Court, from the magis- 
trates of Connecticut and New Haven, wherein they declare 
their dislike of such as would have the Indian rooted out as 
being of an accursed race, and their desire of our mutual 
accord." We have in our State to-day the remnants of the 
Mohegan Indians, and they are our friends and fellow- 
citizens. 

The noble and gentle founders of Connecticut have left to 
us a heritage of peace, of order, and intelligence. This 
State has been distinguished from early days, by its town 
libraries. In a neighboring parish, at the close of a fifty 
years pastorate, the Rev. Joab Brace said: "Reading has 
always been a great entertainment among this people. 
There have been three public libraries, containing standard 
works on divinity, history, philosophy, poetry, travel, enough 
to give any attentive reader a good education." A recently 
elected United States senator from this State could say that 
he owed the education which fitted him for public life to the 
library in his native town. 

As we look upon the portraits of our immediate ancestors, 
and read their letters and contemplate the works which fol- 
low them, we find much to honor and to imitate. The wide- 
spreading elms, the rich leaved maples by many a wayside 
and dwelling, speak of the hands that planted them so 
lovingly for us long ago. We have learned from them to 
prize home life with its family affections and domestic com- 
forts, and have been taught by them to look upward to the 
great " city of God," the household of heaven, and to make 
our homes on earth the symbols of its purity and peace. 



The letters which are given below are a few of the many received in 
response to the invitation of the Church to be present at its celebration. 

Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Sept. 17, 1883. 
My Dear Sir : I greatly regret that it is entirely out of 
my power to avail myself of the invitation which you have 
been good enough to communicate to me from the First 
Church of Christ in Hartford. You will, I trust, convey to 
the committee the expression of my appreciation of the 
honor, and the interest of my college in your proceedings. 
It is a matter of much pride and gratification to the present 
members of Emmanuel College to realize the large influence 
exercised by those who in the young strength of the college 
went out to your free and new societies ; and we value 
highly the interest thus given in our foundations to many in 
America. Since the first days the prevalent tone of relig- 
ious thought within our walls has doubtless gone through 
many changes (Puritan in Chadeton's time, becoming broad 
church in the flourishing time of Whitcote and his fellow, 
and then high church under Sancroft, to come no later down), 
but throughout our ecclesiastical forms have remained the 
same, viz. : those of our English established Church. Under 
those we are still mindful, I hope, of the spirit of religious 
liberty underlying our foundation ; and are earnest sympa- 
thizers with all seekers after truth in whatever associations. 
This sympathy has a special character, I need hardly assure 
you, for the work of an organization which owes its origin 
to two of the early graduates of Emmanuel ; and I greatly 
wish that I were able to give evidence of this by accepting 
your invitation. As my duties here make this impossible to 
me, I can only express my sincere acknowledgments for the 



208 

honor done me and my cordial interest in your approaching 
anniversary. 

I am, my dear sir, very faithfully yours, 

George Phear, 
Master of Emmanuel College. 



Airedale College, Bradford, Sept. 25, 1883. 

My Dear Sir : It would have been to me a singular 
pleasure, not only as Chairman of the Congregational Union 
of England and Wales, but as a Christian man and a Congre- 
gationalism to have been present at your 250th anniversary. 
And I am present at it ; my heart and spirit are with 
you. I stretch the invisible hand of brotherhood across the 
Atlantic, and in the name of all our churches in the mother 
country, I wish you joy and the blessing of the Gracious 
Father on you and your celebration. We owe you much. 
At a time when Presbyters threatened the nascent life of 
Independency the "Survey" of your first pastor helped to 
ward off the blow, and so to prevent "new Presbyter" from 
being " old Priest writ large." It is not too much to say 
that the order and discipline achieved under so trying cir- 
cumstances of the Congregational Churches in America 
showed the English Puritans that Independency was the 
most excellent way. And we have ever looked with pride 
to the manner in which your churches have served your 
country, contributing so many of the men, so much of the 
wisdom, heroism, and statesmanship to which it owes its 
greatness and its freedom. 

Allow me then, though unseen, not to be unremembered 
on an occasion so full of interest, of joy; but in the name 
of all the sister Churches here to wish you again and still 
again "God-speed." 

Ever faithfully yours, A. M. Fairbairn. 



Clewer House, Windsor, Eng., Sept. 22, 1883. 
My Dear Sir : I feel greatly honored by the invitation 
you have so kindly sent me, to attend the Hartford com- 



209 

memoration next month. It brings back to me memories 
of worthy men, with whom history has made me in some 
measure familiar ; and how pleased I should be to mingle in 
your congregation, your thanksgivings, and your enjoyments 
on the approaching occasion. But my engagements at home, 
to say nothing of the journey at my time of life, render it 
impossible for me to do what I could wish. 

Your Church holds a peculiar position in New England, 
and, as a mother, can look with joy upon her children. The 
wilderness and the solitary place have indeed been made 
glad by her, and trees of the Lord's right hand planting 
flourish around what, two centuries and a half ago, was but 
an oasis in the midst of a spiritual desert. You will have 
much to say of Hooker and Stone, and the shades of other 
holy men will pass before your deeply interested assembly. 
May the great Head of the Church be present to crown the 
gathering with His benediction; and may "the fourteenth 
pastor of Hartford" be long spared to carry on noble work 
in the transatlantic Christendom. Accept my most affec- 
tionate greetings, in which, I am sure, the Congregational 
Churches of England and Wales do fully concur. 

You intimate your intention to publish a history of the 
Hartford Church, which I look forward to with gratification. 
I hope I may be spared to read it. 

With sincere fraternal regards, I remain, my dear Mr. 
Walker, your sincere friend and brother in Christ. 

John Stoughton. 

New College, London. 



The City Temple, Holborn Viaduct, 

London, E. C, Sept. 19, 1883. 
Rev. Dr. Walker: 

My Dear Sir : We cannot be with you personally on Octo- 
ber nth and 12th, but we will not be far off sympathetically 
and devotionally. My own church is about the same age as 
yours, and has never moved out of the city of London. I 
27 



2IO 

am sure I speak for my Church when I desire your accept- 
ance of our warmest congratulations on the celebration of 
your 250th anniversary. The evangelical churches of the 
world belong to one another ; in doctrine they constitute one 
church, and in fellowship they represent one life. Though 
our geographical separation is so wide, yet in our spiritual 
nearness there is "no more sea." Accept fraternal saluta- 
tions, and with many a " God-bless-you," believe me, 

Ever cordially yours, Joseph Parker. 



Tilton Vicarage, Liecester, Oct. 2, 1883. 

Dear Sir : I have purposely delayed, in replying to your 
kind invitation, that my letter regretting my inability to 
avail njyself of it, might arrive about the time of your meet- 
ing on the nth inst. Although steam has bridged the vast 
distance between us, it is not easy for the Incumbent of a 
Parish to get away even for the short visit you propose. 
My best wishes and desires are for all, who, maintaining the 
grand principles of the Christian faith, are seeking to ad- 
vance the cause of Christ crucified, and while conveying my 
best thanks to the committee for the honor they have done 
me, assure them also that I wish God speed to both the 
Shepherd and the flock, believing that though not of us, yet 
you are not against us, that when the mists of earth are 
removed, the vivid comprehension then obtained may reveal 
a nearer and closer relationship. 

You are kind enough to recognize the little service I was 
enabled to render you on your visit to this Parish. I can 
assure you, you are most welcome to it, and any future help 
you may have occasion to require. 

Faithfully Yours, William Chippindale, Vicar. 
The Rev. G. L. Walker, 

Pastor First Church. 



211 

To the First Cfairch of Christ in Hartford, the Eliot Church 
in Newton, sendeth Greetings : 

The Eliot Church of Newton has heard with pleasure 
your intention to commemorate the two hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary of the founding of your church and the settle- 
ment of your city. We can but call to mind that the 
founder of your church and his whole congregation went 
out from us in the early summer of 1636, through a trackless 
wilderness, following their compass until they reached the 
banks of the Connecticut, and there with prayer and renewed 
consecration, set up a church to the living God. 

The record is, that the Reverend Thomas Hooker and his 
congregation remained within the borders of the town of 
Newtown, for some two years or more, when the township 
being too narrow for them and their Christian work, they were 
impelled to seek a broader field. We have always heard that 
the same desire for the largest and most extended Christian 
influence has ever continued with the church they founded. 

Our city has inherited the name and constitutes a portion 
of the original town which they left for their wilderness 
home. We have also with us some who are lineal descend- 
ants of your founders, and others who were baptized chil- 
dren, and some who were formerly members of your church 
in Hartford, and our church bears the name of John Eliot, 
who was converted and consecrated himself to the Christian 
ministry in the family of Thomas Hooker in England, and 
afterwards became the Apostle to the Indians where we now 
live. We have therefore an interest in commemorating the 
lives, the sacrifices, and the virtues of that devoted band and 
their heroic leader. 

In extending our congratulations for the two hundred and 
fifty years of your church life and church work, it is our 
earnest prayer that the same spirit which characterized the 
founders may ever continue with you, their descendants. 

The ties of Christian fellowship between them and those 
they left were not forgotten, nor can we forget that in giving 
to you the founder of your church, you in turn have given 



212 

to us a pastor who has inherited the piety, the wisdom, and 
the zeal of the godly Hooker. 

Wishing you Grace, Mercy, and Peace, we are yours in the 
fellowship of the Gospel. 

The Eliot Church, 
By W. O. Trowbridge, its Clerk. 

Eliot Church, Newton, Massachusetts, Oct. 5, 1883. 
At a church meeting held this evening, wherein was con- 
sidered the going out of the Reverend Thomas Hooker and 
his congregation from Newtown in 1633, and the commem- 
oration of that event by the First Church in Hartford, Conn., 
during the coming week, it was unanimously voted, that the 
foregoing letter be sent to the church in Hartford, and that 
our pastor, the Rev. Wolcott Calkins, D.D., be the bearer 
thereof to said church. 

The Eliot Church, 
By W. O. Trowbridge, Clerk. 



The First Church in Cambridge, \ 
Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 10, 1883. \ 

Rev. George L. Walker, D.D., Pastor of First Church of 
Christ in Hartford: 

Dear Sir : At the request of the officers of this church, I 
sent to you yesterday by mail a small volume of letters upon 
the history of our organization, written by Rev. Dr. McKen- 
zie. 

It was thought that the book would possess some interest 
for the Thomas Hooker church, and might appropriately be 
presented to them by the successors of the Thomas Shep- 
ard company at this time, when your anniversary naturally 
directs attention somewhat to our own early history. 

Asking your acceptance thereof as a token of our interest 
in the occasion, I remain, in behalf of the church, very 
respectfully and sincerely yours, 

T. B. Gilman, Clerk. 



213 

106 Marlborough St., Boston, Oct. 8, 1883. 
To the Rev. George Leon Walker, D.D., Minister of First 
Church, Hartford, Conn. : 
My Dear Friend : It would give me great pleasure to be 
with you and yours on the 250th anniversary. Wilson and 
Cotton (Wilson especially) are very real and very dear to me, 
and through them I am strongly drawn to your congregation, 
no longer in the wilderness, nor to be reached only by long 
and painful journeys. In visits which I have made to Eng- 
land from time to time nothing has interested me more 
than the endeavor to place the founders and fathers of our 
New England churches in their old homes, sacred and secular, 
as in Boston, Groton, Sudbury, and Oakham, and Eppingham 
in Rutland. Those men were noble specimens of a noble 
race, to be held in great honor for what they were willing to 
leave behind, and for the faith, hope, and, spite of what 
detractors may say, charity which they brought with them. 
If only their children could have remained in these north- 
eastern States what communities they would be to-day ! — not 
so populous, not so luxurious, but with far more promise of a 
near Kingdom of God on earth than can ever come from our 
huge cities and villages with so little leaven and such a vast 
lump to be leavened. But even the remnant which clings to 
New England will poorly represent a brave ancestry if we 
for a moment forget that our problems, hard as they may be, 
are not so hard as theirs. Let me send heartiest greetings 
for and from the old First Church of Christ in Boston to the 
First Church of Christ in Hartford. We sincerely prize our 
old name and our old covenant. We hold ourselves to be 
Congregationalists, pure and simple, broad if you will, and 
with only our Christian covenant for a creed, but still striv- 
ing to build upon the one Foundation which God has laid. 
May your gathering be altogether pleasant and helpful, and 
may the candle of the Lord burn and shine and brighten 
more and more in your Christian household. 
Cordially yours, 

Rufus Ellis, First Church. 



214 

Boston, Oct. 10, 1883. 

My Dear Dr. Walker : I have waited until the last moment 
to see if any unforeseen event might seem to relieve me from 
the duty of attending the sessions of the National Council, and 
so release me to the great pleasure of being with you at 
Hartford. But I find nothing of the sort, and so I am com- 
pelled most reluctantly to miss an occasion to which I had 
looked forward with eager expectation. I am afraid I am a 
little out of perfect charity with Thomas Hooker in his selec- 
tion of his church date, or with some more modern divine 
in his selection of the date for the National Council in its 
fifth session. 

I pray God to smile upon your gathering ; to give you a 
profound insight into the obscure facts which have so long 
left the early years of your noble church in shadowed 
obscurity; to bless your celebration to the best uses of our 
sacred New England history ; and to make it an occasion of 
newly kindling the fires of a gracious and saintly orthodoxy; 
besides filling it full en passant of joy and peace to you and 
all your co-celebrants. I shall wait with unusual eagerness 
for the memorial volume which shall enshrine fitly all the 
res gestce of the season. With much affection, faithfully, 

Henry M. Dexter. 
Dr. George Leon Walker. 



Andover, Mass., Oct. 9, 1883. 
My Dear Dr. Thompson : It would have afforded me great 
pleasure to attend the exercises at Hartford this week, but 
the privilege is denied me. From my earliest recollection I 
have been acquainted with representatives of the First 
Church, whose anniversary is to be celebrated on Thursday 
and Friday next. I was baptized by a pastor who had been 
a theological pupil of Dr. Strong, and was fond of saying that 
" Nathan Strong had a greater mind than any other minister 
in the United States." More than sixty years ago when 
Joel Hawes preached before the students of Brown Univer- 
sity, one of the students walking home from church said, in 



215 

my hearing, to one of the professors : " I would spend ten 
years at Andover, if I could become as great a preacher as 
Mr. Hawes." The professor replied : " It was something 
more than Andover which made Mr. Hawes a great 
preacher." The professor claimed part of the honor for 
Brown University, which had a special pride in so promising 
a young graduate. It is difficult for men of the present day 
to imagine the enthusiasm with which the sermons of Mr. 
Hawes were received by the students of Providence College 
between the years 1818 and 1822. His name was associated 
not only with Nathan Strong but also with Thomas Hooker. 
I am sadly disappointed in not being able to attend the exer- 
cises at Hartford this week, as I desire very much to learn 
more than I know at present in regard to Thomas Hooker 
and Richard Edwards, from both of whom my children have 
descended, and to both of whom the Hartford church is sig- 
nally indebted. With much regard, I remain, Dear Sir, 
Your friend and servant, 

Edwards A. Park. . 



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